[No surviving envelope]
I was somewhat disappointed to find that your letter postmarked March 20 consisted only of enclosures, though the fact that it was sent by ordinary mail should have warned me. I should like to know more about the W.P.A., initials of which I do not know the meaning;1 I was pleased by your letter to the press on the death of the booking clerk,2 andThorp, Margaret (née Farrand)teased for liberalism;c1 interested by the letter from ‘Maggie’ from Princeton. Who is Maggie, unless it is Margaret Thorp, to whose austere intellectual height such a nic-name [sc. nickname] seems very disrespectful?3 ButTates, theas a couple;a1Tate, Allen
IPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle);g8 must try to write to Uncle John before I leave – as well as a cable, I had a letter from him thanking me for the slide presentation. In your last letter you spoke of your life having been ‘fuller and richer’ than ever during the past winter; and I should like to know more of that, for I know nothing of the inside of your life during these past months, though I rejoiced to hear you use these words. I cannot say the same, for these last months have been months of interruption, and of the struggle of the real person (such as it is) to resist being converted into the public symbol. I hope it will be the former, freed from this Aix-en-Provence nightmare of nearly a year past, who will write the next letter.
IHale, Emilyas director ('producer');v9a reading of Outward Bound;b7 hope you will tell me something about the reading of ‘Outward Bound’.
1.EH had included in her mailing one attachment (unattributed) headed ‘Race Relations Will Be Topic at W.P.A.’, on which she noted by hand ‘Written by E. H.’:
TheHale, Emilyrace-relations and the WPA;r8n W.P.A. of the First Parish Church holds its February meeting Monday afternoon, February 16 [1948], at 3 o’clock.
After the business meeting Miss Juanita Saddler of Cambridge will be the speaker. Miss Saddler, who is executive secretary of the Cambridge Community Relations Committee, will speak on ‘Race Relations’. She is one of the leading colored educators in the North and is responsible for the origin and growth of this special Racial Relations study – work recognized signally by the City of Cambridge and in the Y.W.C.A. movement towards study of all minority groups in this country.
Since the W.P.A. is so fortunate to welcome Miss Saddler as a speaker, it is hoped that weather conditions will favour the day so that a good audience may hear her and show appreciation in the town of her presence and topic.
It is hoped also that anyone interested in this increasingly challenging problem of Race Relations, and who is not a member of the W.P.A., will accept this notice as an invitation to be present the afternoon of February 16 at the First Parish, where guests are always welcome.
2.Not traced.
3.‘Maggie’ was indeed Margaret Farrand Thorp: see EH’s letter below.
4.CarolineGordon, Caroline Gordon (1895–1981), novelist and critic – who was married to the poet and critic Allen Tate in 1925–45, 1946–59 – had become a Roman Catholic convert on 24 Nov. 1947.
5.Paul Flamand (1909–98), publisher: co-founder in 1937 of the publishing house ‘Éditions du Seuil’. See Jean Lacouture, Paul Flamand, editor: the great adventure of Éditions du Seuil (Paris, 2010); Françoise Dosse, The men of the shadows: portraits of publishers (Paris, 2014).
6.Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt unveiled a statue of her husband in Grosvenor Square on 12 Apr.
4.CarolineGordon, Caroline Gordon (1895–1981), novelist and critic – who was married to the poet and critic Allen Tate in 1925–45, 1946–59 – had become a Roman Catholic convert on 24 Nov. 1947.
3.HopeMirrlees, Emily Lina ('Mappie', née Moncrieff) Mirrlees’s mother was Emily Lina Mirrlees, née Moncrieff (1862–1948) – known as ‘Mappie’ or ‘Mappy’ – see Biographical Register.
1.MajMirrlees, Maj.-Gen. William Henry Buchanan ('Reay').-Gen. William Henry Buchanan ‘Reay’ Mirrlees, DSO, CB, MC (1892–1964), served in the Royal Artillery. He was the only son of William Julius and Emily Lina Mirrlees, brother of Hope Mirrlees.
3.DrPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle) John Carroll Perkins (1862–1950), Minister of King’s Chapel, Boston: see Biographical Register.
12.Stephen SpenderSpender, Stephen (1909–95), poet and critic: see Biographical Register.
16.MargaretThorp, Margaret (née Farrand) Farrand (1891–1970), author and journalist – see Margaret Thorp in Biographical Register.