[No surviving envelope]
14 Alexander Street, Princeton, N.J.
Telephone: Princeton 2019
This is the first evening that I have felt up to writing. IMcKnight Kauffers, the;b7 felt very poorly still on Monday, so on the Kauffers’ urging I went to the expense of a car to come down in, which saves the risks of heat, chill, and nervous strain on the train. I14 Alexander Street, Princeton, New JerseyTSE's first impressions of;a4 found a very pleasant little house in a quiet street near to the centre of things, and aAmericaCambridge, Massachusetts;d4exhausting;a5 peacefulness which seems incredible so near New York – a more restful atmosphere I think than Cambridge though it would suit my purposes so much better to be there. The Assistant Director of the Institute is very kind and helpful, tries of [sc. to] think of all one’s needs, and even recommended a doctor without being asked. The Institute is about a half hour’s walk away, or less, on the southern outskirts, but it has a private bus which takes one to and fro without charge. I have a sort of office with a telephone, and as much secretarial help as I want, and a blackboard which I must learn to use.1 (But'Leadership and Letters';a3 myMilton Academy, BostonTSE's War Memorial Lecture for;a8 first job is to get some sort of an address written for Milton; thenPoe, Edgar AllanFrom Poe to Valéry;a3 toFrom Poe to Valéry;a4 review my Poe lecture for Washington, and then at last get back to the play.[)]
My present plans are as follows. ISheffields, the;c6Sheffield, Alfred Dwight ('Shef' or 'Sheff')
IPound, Ezravisited by TSE in Washington;d4 must be in Washing[ton] for three or four days from November 18th. This is because of my duty to Pound; but there is a meeting of the Fellows of the Library as well.
Please let me know now when I can telephone you. Saturday and Sunday are not very good because that man whom I have not yet seen will be here then (as he is well enough to take his classes in New York, he should be no anxiety, but I had rather telephone when he is not here). I suggest Monday evening after 8.30, so there will not be time for you to fix this Friday. TomorrowThorps, the;e7 night I dine with the Thorps, andWoodward, Ernest Llewellyn;a1 onNiebuhr, Reinholddines with TSE in Princeton;a8 Saturday with E. L. Woodward of Oxford2 and Reinhold Niebuhr. I have no other engagements yet.
This is all very strange.
I can’t post this till the morning, as I have stupidly forgotten to buy any stamps. I wonder if one still buys stamps from drug-stores.
1.A photo of TSE at a blackboard, drawing the structure of The Cocktail Party, was taken on 10 Nov. 1948. TSEappearance (TSE's)hair-style;a8n to Enid Faber, 6 Dec. 1948: ‘My hair is NOT glossy: I have to put water on it to keep it in place, that’s all. But there is a nice photograph of me making designs on a blackboard’ (EVE).
2.ErnestWoodward, Ernest Llewellyn Llewellyn Woodward (1890–1971): historian; Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, 1919–44; Professor of International Relations and Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, 1944–51; Research Professor, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 1951–61. His works include Three Studies in European Conservatism (1929), Great Britain and the German Navy (1935), The Age of Reform, 1815–1870 (1938) and Short Journey (1942).
6.MargaretEliot, Margaret Dawes (TSE's sister) Dawes Eliot (1871–1956), TSE's second-oldest sister sister, resident in Cambridge, Mass. In an undated letter (1952) to his Harvard friend Leon M. Little, TSE wrote: ‘Margaret is 83, deaf, eccentric, recluse (I don’t think she has bought any new clothes since 1900).’
1.Marian/MarionEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister) Cushing Eliot (1877–1964), fourth child of Henry Ware Eliot and Charlotte Eliot: see Biographical Register.
6.RebekahFurness, Rebekah ('Rebe') (‘Rebe’) Furness (1854–1937) andFurness, Laura Laura Furness (1857–1949) – born in Philadelphia, daughters of James Thwing Furness and Elizabeth Margaret Eliot (a descendant of Sheriff William Greenleaf, who had declaimed the Declaration of Independence from the balcony of the State House in Boston in 1776) – had lived since 1920, with their brother Dawes Eliot Furness, in Boston’s Back Bay neighbourhood and in Petersham, New Hampshire. Rebekah, a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, was an artist.
5.AiméeLamb, Aimée LambLambs, theLamb, Aimée
3.ReinholdNiebuhr, Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971), influential theologian, ethicist, philosopher, and polemical commentator on politics and public affairs: see Biographical Register.
3.Ezra PoundPound, Ezra (1885–1972), American poet and critic: see Biographical Register.
8.AlfredSheffield, Alfred Dwight ('Shef' or 'Sheff') Dwight Sheffield (1871–1961) – ‘Shef’ or ‘Sheff’ – husband of TSE’s eldest sister, taught English at University School, Cleveland, Ohio, and was an English instructor, later Professor, of Group Work at Wellesley College. His publications include Lectures on the Harvard Classics: Confucianism (1909) and Grammar and Thinking: a study of the working conceptions in syntax (1912).
2.TheodoreSpencer, Theodore Spencer (1902–48), writer, poet and critic, taught at Harvard, 1927–49: see Biographical Register.
2.ErnestWoodward, Ernest Llewellyn Llewellyn Woodward (1890–1971): historian; Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, 1919–44; Professor of International Relations and Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, 1944–51; Research Professor, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 1951–61. His works include Three Studies in European Conservatism (1929), Great Britain and the German Navy (1935), The Age of Reform, 1815–1870 (1938) and Short Journey (1942).