Emily Hale to T. S. Eliot
Grand Manan, N.B.
Thank you for your last letter with its amusing description ofFabers, the;h8 your visit to the Fabers, as well as your somewhat anxious forecast aboutBrocklebanks, the;a2 the visit to the Brocklebanks. I shall now be eager to know whether your prognostications were fulfilled or not. To me, it all sounded very agreeable – toWavell, General Archibald;b2 be in the lovely house and setting itself, with your ‘pet’ Wavell, plus your kind host and hostess, plus the primitives, seemed a fairly agreeable experience, which recalled very pleasant occasions there in the past. This visit will bring you the closest to Campden since 1939 that you have been – I wonder how such a return to the region, and to the theater at Stratford, will affect you?
INason, Margaret ('Meg') Geraldine;b6 regret very much to learn about Meg, and have written her for her birthday, which is Sept. 1st. Also I sent a package of food as a present for the same occasion. I suppose you are flying to this country? If so, I can hardly send you a cable for your birthday in mid-air, but on the other hand if you reach N.Y. the 29th you will not be leaving London till the 26th is past!
YourThorps, theEH on;e4 remarks about the Thorps are very interesting and more penetrating than any I can bring to bear upon them – exceptThorp, Margaret (née Farrand)EH on;c4 to say that two or three times this past summer hints were dropped that M. is considered the more brilliant of the two – and that life as it is lived in their communal summer experience, seems to me terribly distracted, over-stimulating and fatiguing (at least to me) [?who] was there for three meals, & one shortish visit with Margaret solo. But I am not at ease with her usually, nor have been for years – a hang-over from our past relationship perhaps, and a great difference in our natures. Yet I think she does really value the intimacy of our long years of associative ties, and counts upon me for certain things. IsabelWhiting, Isabel;a5 Whiting and one of her married daughters, who met her – had very shrewd comments to make about her also. Yes, I suppose I shall be asked to Princeton but do not know when I could get away, except for part of the Christmas holidays perhaps – but I shall perhaps have seen you at Andover before then? By last accounts, my ‘duplex’ will probably be ready for my furniture at least to go in before school opens Sept. 21st.
LifeHale, Emilyon life in Grand Manan;s2 hereCanadaGrand Manan Island, New Brunswick;a2EH spends autumn on;a3 is much as usual – there are no new [?comers] & Mr & Mrs l’Aventure – who are excellent in carrying on as much of the old spirit, and introducing a few minor improvements. The guests are, as usual, of all ages, sizes, and degrees of interest – as one gets at them increasingly. Women predominate, but the proportion of men is larger than usual – due probably to the presence of Mr l’Aventure as a host perhaps – among the latter are two professional pianists who play excellently, and have already given us one very lovely concert on the one very old grand piano which they use remarkably skilfully. I have not yet done my ‘turn’ but I feel it coming! Another year, if I come again, I should like to come with a good friend, as it makes life a little less lonely among so many changes, I had so hoped we might come together here, that I cannot quite accustom myself to the change.
TheElsmith, Dorothy Olcott;c2 Elsmith wedding was carried out in great detail, great numbers of people, much expenditure of money, as well as Dorothy’s thought – but the ceremony itself was truly impressive and beautiful and climaxed perfectly the more conventional episodes leading up to it. I did the decorations in the house – using dozens of [illegible] gladioli in both brilliant colors, and white and pale yellow, which were handsome, if I do say so; I am tempted to go in for ‘personal flower arrangements’ as a side-line which would give me very good wages.
I hope your residence at Princeton is a decided matter soon – and that you will have a real rest somewhere by yourself before you come over. I am thankful you will be out of England for one winter & let us pray that world conditions may promise a little security & progress, if not of peace. ThisHitchcock, Alfred;a1 Russian situation in New York out-does a Hitchcock film.1
ICocktail Party, The;c2 hope The Cocktail Party is going as jollily, as you wish.
P.S. ISitwell, Osbertmemoirs of TSE;a8 have been reading a good deal about you lately – Osbert Sitwell’s remarks in the last ‘Atlantic Monthly’ – in which your eyes are described as tiger-like but to which he adds very justly your patience and kindness on public occasions, and to individuals – also the story of your being on a program & arriving a little late.2
TheTambimuttu, Meary James Thuairajah ('Tambi')T. S. Eliot: A Symposium;a1 other exposé of yourself is in the volume of essays done by different men – only one did I look at by a man whose name I have forgotten on you [?at] Burnt Norton. Such reading is very interesting, but naturally somewhat disquieting – or should I say helpful? Well, my dear, I want to understand you and the events of the last year as well as possible always.
1.Whittaker Chambers (a journalist and himself a former Communist) had recently testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee that Alger Hiss, a senior State Department official, was a Communist. Hiss was later imprisoned, but whether he was a Soviet spy, as was alleged, remains uncertain.
2.ExtractsSitwell, Osbertmemoirs of TSE;a8 from Osbert Sitwell’s autobiography, Laughter in the Next Room (Boston, 1948), were appearing in successive issues of the Atlantic Monthly, in July, Aug., Sept. and Oct. 1948. ‘[Eliot’s] work was a source of so much pleasure and excitement to my sister, my brother and myself, both at the time of which I write, and through all the years that have passed since. I had already enjoyed the privilege of counting Eliot as a friend for some twelve months. InGosse, Edmundrebukes TSE for lateness;a1n the autumn of 1917, he and my brother and sister and I were among the poets chosen to read their verse for charity one afternoon at Mrs Colefax’s house. The night before, a dinner-party was given for the chairman, Sir Edmund Gosse […] and for those reading. It was then that we saw Eliot for the first time: a most striking being, having peculiarly luminous, little yellow, more than tawny, eyes: the eyes, they might have been, of one of the greater cats, but tiger, puma, leopard, lynx, rather than those of a lion which, for some reason, display usually a more domesticated and placid expression. His face, too, possessed the width of bony structure of a tigrine face, albeit the nose was prominent … Though he … must have been exhausted by long hours of uncongenial work [at Lloyds Bank], his air … was always lively, gay, even jaunty … To return to the reading, the next day the poets met again on a platform in a drawing-room. Sir Edmund was in the chair, with four or five of us on either side of him … When Eliot arrived a few minutes late, he was rebuked publicly by Sir Edmund (though in fact the young man had come straight from the bank in which he was then working) … As for Eliot, he showed no trace of annoyance at being reproved.’
OfPound, EzraOsbert Sitwell on;d6n Ezra Pound, Sitwell remarked: ‘His kindness was very great to many young authors and artists, but he seldom allowed it to be suspected by its recipients.’
4.TSEElsmiths, theseminal Woods Hole stay with;a1Elsmith, Dorothy Olcott
1.MargaretNason, Margaret ('Meg') Geraldine (Meg) Geraldine Nason (1900–86), proprietor of the Bindery tea rooms, Broadway, Worcestershire, whom TSE and EH befriended on visits to Chipping Campden.
3.Ezra PoundPound, Ezra (1885–1972), American poet and critic: see Biographical Register.
3.OsbertSitwell, Osbert Sitwell (1892–1969), poet and man of letters. Early in his career, he published collections of poems, including Argonaut and Juggernaut (1919), and a volume of stories, Triple Fugue (1924); but he is now most celebrated for his remarkable memoirs, Left Hand, Right Hand (5 vols, 1945–50), which include a fine portrayal of TSE. TSE published one sketch by him in the Criterion. See John Lehmann, A Nest of Tigers: Edith, Osbert and Sacheverell Sitwell in their Times (1968); John Pearson, Façades: Edith, Osbert and Sacheverell Sitwell (1978); Philip Ziegler, Osbert Sitwell (1998). TSE to Mary Trevelyan, 16 Oct. 1949: ‘Edith and Osbert are 70% humbug – but kind – and cruel' (in Mary Trevelyan, 'The Pope of Russell Square’, 19).
MearyTambimuttu, Meary James Thuairajah ('Tambi') James Thurairajah Tambimuttu – ‘Tambi’ (1915–83) – Tamil poet, editor and publisher, was born in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and educated at Columbo before arriving in London in Jan. 1938, aged twenty-three. In 1939 he launched Poetry London, which ran for fourteen volumes through the 1940s, publishing figures including Lawrence Durrell, Kathleen Raine, Roy Campbell, and Keith Douglas. In 1943 he established the imprint Editions Poetry London: works produced included Elizabeth Smart’s By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, Keith Douglas’s Alamein to Zem Zem and Cleanth Brooks’s Modern Poetry and the Tradition. After three years back in Ceylon, 1949–52, he ventured to New York – launching Poetry London–New York (1956–60) – and spent his last years in London. TSE published his anthology Poetry in Wartime (1942). See further Tambimuttu: Bridge between Two Worlds, ed. Jane Williams (1989).
16.MargaretThorp, Margaret (née Farrand) Farrand (1891–1970), author and journalist – see Margaret Thorp in Biographical Register.
5.GeneralWavell, General Archibald Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell (1883–1950), Commander-in-Chief Middle East in the early phase of WW2. He was later Commander-in-Chief in India and finally Viceroy of India until not long before Partition.
1.AnWhiting, Isabel old, close friend of EH’s, Isabel Whiting lived for some years at 11 Mason Street, Cambridge, MA; later at 9 Phillips Place, Cambridge, MA.