[No surviving envelope]
I am writing only rather briefly, to thank you for your sweet letter of June 8 – because you know I am very fidgety about addresses, as about other details of life like catching trains, packing etc. So this will go simply to
——Miss Emily Hale,
——Abbott [sic] Academy,
——Andover, Mass.———————Is that right? it seems such a little address.
and my next will go to
——Miss Emily Hale,
——Apartment 17
——90 Commonwealth Avenue
——Boston, Mass.
and towards the end of July to
——Miss Emily Hale,
——‘The Anchorage’,
——Grand Manan,
——New Brunswick.
I9 Lexington Road, Concord, MassachusettsEH removing from;a7 set all this out, so that you may instantly correct me on any detail, especially about the last one. It seems a pity that you should be leaving such nice rooms, which I shall never see, and just as you seem to have acquired some very nice note paper for it. But I am delighted to hear that the School has amenities, as well as sympathetic and appreciative personalities. IDorset Players, Thesuspended for the summer;a4 don’t know how sorry or glad to be over the cancellation of Dorset – IStephenson, Paul;a7 am sorry for Paul Anderson [sc. Stephenson], in any case: because if you had a good part in a good play, it would be a tonic stimulant, but in any case it would be fatiguing, and you need a good holiday with sea breezes. I am distressed, but not at all surprised, by the increasing problem of 90 Commonwealth Avenue. I hope you will not be there throughout the whole of July – and in the hot weather; and that you will at least make excursions of a few days at a time to New Bedford and elsewhere. IThorp, Willard;c4 had a letter from Willard giving their Francis Avenue Address (IEliot, Abigail Adams (TSE's cousin);a9 wonder whether they would find Abigail Eliot congenial – perhapsWallace, Henry;a2 theyArab–Israeli War, 1948;a1 will have a common enthusiasm in Henry Wallace – though how any intelligent people can support that dangerous clown passes my comprehension).1 I don’t know, because I so carefully avoid politics when in America; and IPrinceton University;e4 shall certainly refuse to discuss Palestine while in Princeton2 – the extent to which Britain has been traduced and lied about over that affair is amazing.
IPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle);h3 am afraid my cable did not arrive in time for Uncle John’s birthday, but I hope he got it all the same. I shall write to him after I come back from Oxford – IRichmonds, theTSE's Netherhampton weekends with;a7 shall really be a week away, as I go to Salisbury tomorrow, toAlliance Françaisewhere TSE stays;a5 Oxford on Tuesday, andBlum, Léon;a3 stay over Thursday night at the Maison Française for a dinner to Léon Blum.3 I seem to see a good deal of the Frogs, but that is one of my functions. IBrownes, the Martinencourage TSE over Cocktail Party;c8 dinedCocktail Party, Thestimulated by the Martin Brownes;b7 with the Martin Brownes last night, and received encouragement about the scenes of my play, and a few useful hints to keep in mind when I start on the second version. I am now about a third through the third act – which sounds very advanced; but the scenes are in this version too short as well as having too much talk. Some of the talk must be resolved into action.
IAll Souls College, Oxfordfestivities at;a6 do wish that you could be at Oxford, thoughChrist Church, OxfordGaudy at;a3 no ladies attend the Luncheon at All Souls’ or the dinner at Christ Church, except possibly a few lady dons and heads of womens’ [sic] colleges. But there is a garden party in the afternoon, with a band playing of course – and probably a cold damp windy day.
1.Henry A. Wallace (1888–1965): farmer, journalist and politician; served under Theodore Roosevelt as Secretary of Agriculture, 1933–40; as 33rd Vice-President, 1940–4; Secretary of Commerce from 1944. However, at a time when anti-Communist sentiment was running high in the USA, he made a speech in New York in Sept. 1947 that advocated conciliation with the Soviet Union – whereupon he was summarily sacked by President Harry S. Truman. For the presidential election campaign in 1948, Wallace quit the Democratic Party and ran with the so-called Progressive Party; he endorsed left-wing policies including the desegregation of public schools, gender equality and a national health insurance programme and was fatally tagged as a fellow traveller to Communism. Despite the notable support of a variety of groups and individuals – including Paul Robeson, Pete Seeger and Norman Mailer – Wallace won only 2.38 per cent of the popular vote.
2.The 1948 Arab–Israeli War was ongoing at the date of this letter, following the Israeli declaration of independence on 14 May 1948.
3.LéonBlum, Léon Blum (1872–1950): French socialist politician – Prime Minister in a Popular Front government, 1936–7, 1938. During the war, as a Jew and stout antagonist of Vichy France, he had been incarcerated in Buchenwald concentration camp. TSE to Elena Richmond, 27 June 1948, of Blum: ‘a most charming man, who recites poetry with learning, taste and expressiveness, but who struck me as, like other socialists, a mediocre political philosopher’.
3.LéonBlum, Léon Blum (1872–1950): French socialist politician – Prime Minister in a Popular Front government, 1936–7, 1938. During the war, as a Jew and stout antagonist of Vichy France, he had been incarcerated in Buchenwald concentration camp. TSE to Elena Richmond, 27 June 1948, of Blum: ‘a most charming man, who recites poetry with learning, taste and expressiveness, but who struck me as, like other socialists, a mediocre political philosopher’.
2.RevdEliot, Revd Christopher Rhodes (TSE's uncle) Christopher Rhodes Eliot (1856–1945) andEliot, Abigail Adams (TSE's cousin) his daughter Abigail Adams Eliot (b. 1892). ‘After taking his A.B. at Washington University in 1856, [Christopher] taught for a year in the Academic Department. He later continued his studies at Washington University and at Harvard, and received two degrees in 1881, an A.M. from Washington University and an S.T.B. from the Harvard Divinity School. He was ordained in 1882, but thereafter associated himself with eastern pastorates, chiefly with the Bulfinch Place Church in Boston. His distinctions as churchman and teacher were officially recognized by Washington University in [its] granting him an honorary Doctorate of Laws in 1925’ (‘The Eliot Family and St Louis’: appendix prepared by the Department of English to TSE’s ‘American Literature and the American Language’ [Washington University Press, 1953].)
3.DrPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle) John Carroll Perkins (1862–1950), Minister of King’s Chapel, Boston: see Biographical Register.
5.PaulStephenson, Paul Stephenson (1898–1974), theatre director – he worked for various theatres, with seasons at the Central City Opera House, Colorado (where he directed Lillian Gish in Camille), and at the Brattleboro Theater Group, Vermont – was first engaged for the summer season at the Dorset Players, Vermont in 1939–40, After war service in the Marine Corps, he returned to the Dorset Players for the summers of 1946 and 1947. But box office takings during 1947 were so poor that the final shows were cancelled: Stephenson was not asked back for the summer of 1948.
1.Margaret Thorp, née Farrand (1891–1970), contemporary and close friend of EH; noted author and biographer. WillardThorp, Willard Thorp (1899–1990) was a Professor of English at Princeton University. See Biographical Register. See further Lyndall Gordon, Hyacinth Girl, 126–8, 158–9.