[No surviving envelope]

T. S.Eliot
EmilyHale
TS
Faber & Faber Ltd
31 August 1949
My Dear,

Your letter came from Grand Manan a few days before I left for Edinburgh, and I did not feel that I could answer it then – though, if I had not heard from you I would have written before Edinburgh. In any case, IEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister)1949 visit to England with Dodo;g1return from Southwold;a8 had been livingSmith, Theodora ('Dodo') Eliot (TSE's niece)1949 visit to England;d1then to Southwold;a6 in a turmoil ever since returning from Southwold, with rehearsals taking a good deal of time. We got back from Edinburgh on Saturday evening, after a very full and tiring week there. During the following days I spent every evening with Marion and Theodora, and saw them off last night to New York. SoFabers, thehost TSE for weekend;h9 now I have a comparatively free interval – I shall take a long weekend with the Fabers in Sussex; andtravels, trips and plansTSE's October–November 1949 trip to Germany;g8;a4 hope to be sufficiently restored by that to be able to start on three addresses which I have to prepare for Germany.1 My tour, by the way, has been put forward to the 26th October (returning on the 18th November) so that my visit to university towns may fall after the students have reassembled. The combination of the work, the emotional strain, and the calls upon my time, have left me very tired indeed.

ICocktail Party, The1949 Edinburgh Festival production;d1reviewed;a6 enclose three cuttings of newspaper notices – The Times2 and the Telegraph of London3 and the Evening Record of Glasgow.4 These are the most interesting; some, of course were far from flattering; but all were obliged to admit the excellence of production and acting; and the general effect is to give the play a very good start for London. IGuinness, Alec;a7 understandFlemyng, Robert;a1 that thereJeans, Ursula;a2 must be an interval, as Guinness, Fleming [sc. Flemyng]5 and Ursula Jeans all have immediate contracts to fulfil, but that it is intended to open in London in November, with, I hope, nearly the entire cast, because there is not one whom I should wish to dispense with. ThisBrowne, Elliott Martin1949 Edinburgh Cocktail Party;e7surpasses himself with production;b1 is by far the best production that Martin has done so far, and I am inclined to withdraw my less favourable opinion – this was thoroughly professional and most intelligent. IBrowne, Henzie (née Raeburn)as Cocktail Party understudy;b4 must say that one of the reasons why this is his best is that Henzie is not in it.

That remains a difficult and delicate situation; and I am prepared for the question of Henzie as a possible understudy may <to> arise in London. It is quite clear that she was bitterly disappointed: but I do hold to the opinion that a producer should not cast his wife for a part unless she is a very good actress indeed. ISherek, Henryconfounds TSE's expectations;a2 think that it has been good for Martin to be working under a shrewd commercial producer as able and intelligent as Henry Sherek – an extraordinary man who looks about as tough a businessman in the entertainment industry as one could imagine, but who is apparently not Jewish and is an Etonian. Sherek was extremely useful to me in the press conference; and, although he made me appear at the end of the first night, on the stage, said wisely that he did not want me to make a speech.

ItWorth, Irenereputation enhanced by Cocktail Party;a1 is a satisfaction toNesbitt, Cathleen (née Kathleen Mary Nesbitt)reputation enhanced by Cocktail Party;a2 think that the production will, if anything, enhance the reputation of all who acted in it; that it will give Irene Worth (who has never done anything so conspicuous before) the prospect of good engagements – she gave a most moving rendering6 – and that it starts Cathleen Nesbitt in a type of role which she can carry on with as long as she acts at all – and she needs the money as she has a husband and two children to keep.

I am sorry that the script of my play was so badly packed. (IncidentallyEliot, Esmé Valerie (née Fletcher, TSE's second wife)comes highly recommended as secretary;a1, I have now engaged a new secretary,7 who will start in ten days time – highlyBrooks, Collinrecommends EVE as secretary;a1 recommended by the Editor of ‘Truth’, whom I know,8 andMorgan, CharlesEVE's quondam employer;a3 formerly secretary to Charles Morgan! She left that post recently because she was dissatisfied, apparently the Morgans got her to do housekeeping work, and she wanted secretarial duties rather than making out laundry lists). ICocktail Party, TheTSE disavows autobiographical basis;d4 was, of course, very much distressed and unhappy over your own distress. I don’t know yet whether you are not – as seems to me – reading into the play much which I should deny to be there. In the first place, neither the situations nor the characters are in any way ‘personal’. IFamily Reunion, Themore 'personal' than Cocktail Party;j2 recognise that element in The Family Reunion; but I think that I have now worked through that to something pretty objective. I see no trace of myself, or of you, or of anybody else, in the characters: I took elements of Julia and Alex from two people I know, but there is a good deal else there too; and even if the two people concerned should recognise the borrowing, I don’t think they could be anything but flattered. The situations, and the relations between the characters, have no foundation whatever in my own experience. The mentality of Edward is wholly different from my own; his feelings towards his wife utterly different from anything in my experience; and the only personal echo that I recognise is some lines about feeling old – which particularly appealed to Robert Flemyng as he is getting to an age at which he thinks he understands them. ThereBrocklebank, Charlotte Carissima ('Cara')provides inspiration for 'Celia';b4 is no original for Lavinia, and as for Celia, only a very remote suggestion came to me from Cara Brocklebank’s telling me about a friend of hers, who had been a lively society girl just after the first war, and who had become an anchoress – that is, the most austere possible religious life – whose prayers were of very great help to people. The play is in fact, about the making of a saint; and nowadays, it is necessary to give people a very violent shock indeed, to make them take holiness seriously. The purpose of the social setting, and of the sub-plots of the Chamberlaynes and Peter, is solely to set this forth in the sharpest relief.

So, if there are any misunderstandings to be cleared up, I hope this will go some way towards doing so.

I am afraid you reached Grand Manan in a very exhausted condition, after being so long with the Perkins’s in that terrific heat; and I do hope that the summer will have abated before you return, and that you will not have to start work in anything like the temperature you left. Oh dear.

With much love
Tom

1.See ‘Remarks in German to German audiences’, CProse 7, 372–5. Sponsored by the German Foreign Office in London, TSE gave lectures and some readings in English in Hamburg, Berlin, Hanover, Göttingen, Münster, Bonn and Cologne; he also spoke in Heidelberg and Munich. The three major talks were ‘The Aims of Poetic Drama’ (‘Die Aufgaben des Versdramas’); ‘The Idea of a European Society’ (‘Die Idee einer europäischen Gesellschaft’); and ‘The Development of Shakespeare’s Verse’ (‘Shakespeares Verskunst’).

2.‘TheTimes, Thereviews The Cocktail Party;a4n Edinburgh Festival: “The Cocktail Party” by T. S. Eliot from our dramatic critic’, The Times, 24 Aug. 1949: ‘In this brilliantly entertaining analysis of problems long since staled by conventional stage treatment Mr Eliot achieves a remarkable refinement of his dramatic style. His earlier plays have been successive moves towards simplicity and now his thought, wholly undiluted, flows with certainty and a new sparkle of wit along present-day theatrical channels. The framework of ritual sat a little heavily on Murder in the Cathedral. Greek props gave an air of embarrassing artificiality to the narrative of The Family Reunion. These he has now dispensed with; and in lucid, unallusive verse which endows everyday speech with a delicate precision and a strictly occasional poetic intensity he presents in the shape of a fashionable West End comedy a story highly ingenious in its construction, witty in its repartee, and impregnated with Christian feeling […]

‘London can scarcely afford to ignore entertainment of so much distinction, and it is to be hoped that when the play reaches a more permanent stage the company seen here at the Royal Lyceum Theatre will remain quite unchanged. MrGuinness, Alecpraised by The Times;a8n Alec Guinness as the humorous visionary of Harley Street, MissWorth, Irenepraised by The Times;a2n Irene Worth as the girl who is at once a potential Bright Young Thing and a potential saint, Mr Donald Houston as the film writer illustrating in his own way the limitations of the individual, MissNesbitt, Cathleen (née Kathleen Mary Nesbitt)praised by The Times;a3n Cathleen Nesbitt, Mr Robert Flemyng, Mr Ernest Clark – they are a splendid team directed unobtrusively well by Mr E. Martin Browne.’

3.W. A. DarlingtonDaily Telegraphreviews The Cocktail Party;a5n, ‘Fine Play by T. S. Eliot: Close-Packed Work’, Daily Telegraph, 23 Aug. 1949, 5: ‘With the production of T. S. Eliot’s new play, “The Cocktail Party”, modestly called by its author a comedy, the Edinburgh Festival attains its highest point of distinction so far on the dramatic side. Unless I am carried away by the excitement of the moment, this play is one of the finest dramatic achievements of our time.

‘One might complain of it that it is packed too closely – that it is so full of philosophy, wit and epigram and swings so quickly and so far between the deepest seriousness and the lightest of comic touches that the mind cannot grasp it. This is true to some extent. Yet Mr Eliot contrives by sheer narrative skill to keep his tale simple amid all the complicated talk.

‘The play is written in what my ear takes to be rhythmic and disciplined prose, though it may be poetry in form as well as in essence. Whatever it is, it makes a fluent and flexible medium.

‘A group of sophisticated people meet at a cocktail party and gradually they unfold their unhappiness, their fears of loneliness, their craving for love and understanding, their shrinking from responsibility. One aloof stranger, whose presence at the party is unexplained, seems in some way to hold the key to these mysteries.

‘Later he turns out to be a doctor, with a material enough address in Harley-street but an atmosphere of the fourth dimension about him, and to him come for help an unhappy married couple and a bewildered girl with a sense of sin. He reveals these groping souls to themselves.

‘I have left myself little space to give adequate praise to the acting or to the work of E. Martin Browne as director. Robert Flemyng and Ursula Jeans as husband and wife, Irene Worth as the girl, Alec Guinness as the doctor are admirable, and Cathleen Nesbitt is quite irresistible in a part full of contrasts and surprises.’

4.TSE has conflated the names of various Glasgow-based newspapers; in fact the review was by Mary Carson in Glasgow Herald, 31 Aug. 1949. Extrapolated in Browne, The Making of T. S. Eliot’s Plays, 233.

5.RobertFlemyng, Robert Flemyng (1912–95): British actor of stage and screen, came to prominence in Terence Rattigan’s French Without Tears (1936) and in a Ben Travers farce, Banana Ridge (1938). After distinguished service in the Royal Army Medical Corps, for which he was awarded the Military Cross and appointed OBE, he played Edward Chamberlayne in The Cocktail Party. He later starred in stage productions; films including The Blue Lamp (1950) and The Quiller Memorandum (1966); and episodes of the 1960s British TV series Compact.

6.IreneWorth, Irene Worth (1916–2002), hugely talented American stage and screen actor, was to progress from TSE’s play to international stardom on stage and screen. She joined the Old Vic company in 1951, as a leading actor under Tyrone Guthrie; and in 1953 she appeared at the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, where her appearances included a further partnership with Alec Guinness (Hotel Paradiso). In 1962 she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Aldwych Theatre, London, where her roles included a remorseless Goneril to Paul Scofield’s Lear in Peter Brook’s production of King Lear. In 1968 she played a dynamic Jocasta in Brook’s production of Seneca’s Oedipus (trans. Ted Hughes) – featuring a huge golden phallus – alongside John Gielgud. Numerous acting awards fell to her remarkable work: a BAFTA, and three Tony Awards including the award for Best Actress in a Play for Tiny Alice (1965), and yet another Tony for Best Featured Actress in Lost in Yonkers (1991).

7.EsméEliot, Esmé Valerie (née Fletcher, TSE's second wife) Valerie Fletcher (1926–2012) started work as TSE’s secretary on 12 Sept. 1949, and became his second wife on 10 Jan. 1957; after his death in Jan. 1965, his literary executor and editor: see 'Valerie Eliot' in Biographical Register.

8.CollinBrooks, Collin Brooks, MC (1893–1959): journalist, editor, broadcaster and prolific author. Although he had left school at the age of fifteen, his long experience of journalism included stints as editor of the Financial News and of the Sunday Dispatch. He was chair and editor of Truth, 1941–53; and in 1953 he was to join the Daily Express group. In later years he participated in the BBC broadcast programmes Any Questions and The Brains Trust. By origin a northerner, and a longstanding friend of Valerie Fletcher’s parents, he came to know that TSE was looking for a new secretary and recommended Valerie to apply. Two of Brooks’s books in the Eliot library, Tavern Talk (1950) and More Tavern Talk (1952), are inscribed to Valerie. TSE was to send Brooks a copy of On Poetry and Poets, inscribed ‘to Collin Brooks in gratitude and affection from T. S. Eliot 13.9.57.’ See TSE, ‘Memorial Talk for Collin Brooks’, The Statist, 30 May 1959, 1–2: CProse 8, 334–8.

TSE to Polly Tandy, ‘Monday after the XIII Sunday after Trinity [30 Sept.] 1949’, on ‘having to have a new secretary which her name is Valerie and she was secretary for Charles Morgan & wife only they made her do cooking and laundry lists etc. which she did not like to do.’

ValerieEliot, Esmé Valerie (née Fletcher, TSE's second wife)which she recalls becoming;a2n Eliot to Aimée and Rosamond Lamb, 12 Sept. 1959: ‘Ten years ago to-day I became Tom’s secretary – and how terrified I was! – and he has remembered the occasion with red roses. Isn’t he a pet?’ (Boston Athenaeum).

Brocklebank, Charlotte Carissima ('Cara'), Cheetham introduces to TSE, invites TSE to Nativity play, son killed in action, shares ancestors with TSE, suffers further family heartbreak, visited in Stratford-upon-Avon, news of her death, her death and inquest, provides inspiration for 'Celia',

2.CharlotteBrocklebank, Charlotte Carissima ('Cara') Carissima (‘Cara’) Brocklebank (1885–1948), only surviving daughter of Gen. Sir Bindon and Lady Blood, married in 1910 Lt.-Col. Richard Hugh Royds Brocklebank, DSO (1881–1965). They lived at 18 Hyde Park Square, London W.2, and at Alveston House, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire: see Biographical Register.

Brooks, Collin, recommends EVE as secretary,

8.CollinBrooks, Collin Brooks, MC (1893–1959): journalist, editor, broadcaster and prolific author. Although he had left school at the age of fifteen, his long experience of journalism included stints as editor of the Financial News and of the Sunday Dispatch. He was chair and editor of Truth, 1941–53; and in 1953 he was to join the Daily Express group. In later years he participated in the BBC broadcast programmes Any Questions and The Brains Trust. By origin a northerner, and a longstanding friend of Valerie Fletcher’s parents, he came to know that TSE was looking for a new secretary and recommended Valerie to apply. Two of Brooks’s books in the Eliot library, Tavern Talk (1950) and More Tavern Talk (1952), are inscribed to Valerie. TSE was to send Brooks a copy of On Poetry and Poets, inscribed ‘to Collin Brooks in gratitude and affection from T. S. Eliot 13.9.57.’ See TSE, ‘Memorial Talk for Collin Brooks’, The Statist, 30 May 1959, 1–2: CProse 8, 334–8.

Browne, Elliott Martin, meets TSE at Chichester, production of The Rock, meets TSE over possible collaboration, talks over outline of play, meets TSE with Martin Shaw, delighted with Rock choruses, discusses unwritten pageant scenes with TSE, predicament as The Rock's director, well connected in amateur circles, revising into the night with TSE, argues with Shaw at dress-rehearsal, presented to Prince Arthur, honoured by Rock cast-supper, producing Gordon Bottomley's play, speaks at Londonderry House with TSE, 1935 Canterbury Murder in the Cathedral, approached by TSE to 'produce', consulted throughout composition, goes silent, lunches with TSE and Speaight, directs and acts despite illness, pursues London Murder revival, 1935–6 Mercury Theatre Murder revival, engaged as producer by Dukes, keen that EH attend rehearsals, simultaneously part of BBC production, agrees about Speaight's decline, preferred as producer for TSE's next play, and Charles Williams's Cranmer, in which he plays 'the Skeleton', and TSE attend Tenebrae, taken to Cambridge after-feast, producing York Nativity Play, which TSE thinks Giottoesque, at Savile Club Murder dinner, producing Shakespeare's Dream, and Ascent of F6, and Tewkesbury Festival Murder confusion, 1939 production of The Family Reunion, due to be sent script, weighing TSE's proposal that he produce, enthused by script, suggests TSE see Mourning Becomes Electra, against Family Reunion as title, pleased with draft, quizzed on fire-safety, typescript prepared for, new draft submitted to, rewrite waits on, receives new draft, criticisms thereof, reports John Gielgud interest, mediates between Gielgud and TSE, TSE throws over Gielgud for, secures Westminster Theatre production, steps into company breach, then into still-greater breach, and the play's weaknesses, direction of Family Reunion, receives TSE's Shakespeare lectures, 1938 American Murder tour, re-rehearsing actors for, suffers fit of pre-tour gloom, yet to report from Boston, and Tewkesbury pageant, accompanies TSE to La Mandragola, on Family Reunion's future prospects, and possible Orson Welles interest, war leaves at loose end, advises TSE over next play, war work with Pilgrim Players, unavailable for modern-dress Murder, compared to tempter/knight successor, requests Pilgrim Players' play from TSE, New Plays by Poets series, as director, and This Way to the Tomb, and Family Reunion revival, urges TSE to concentrate on theatre, 1946 Mercury Family Reunion revival, in rehearsal, possible revue for Mercury Theatre, and The Lady's Not for Burning, Chairman of the Drama League, 1949 Edinburgh Cocktail Party, to produce, TSE's intended first reader for, receives beginning, approves first act, receives TSE's revisions, communciates Alec Guinness's enthusiasm, arranges reading, surpasses himself with production, in Florence, EH suggests moving on from, and the Poets' Theatre Guild, 1950 Cocktail Party New York transfer, compares Rex Harrison and Alec Guinness, TSE debates whether to continue collaboration with, suggests three-play TSE repertory, 1953 Edinburgh Confidential Clerk, receives first two acts, designing sets, 1953 Lyric Theatre Confidential Clerk, attends with TSE, 1954 American Confidential Clerk, 1954 touring Confidential Clerk, TSE and Martin Browne catch in Golders Green, seeks Family Reunion MS from EH,

4.E. MartinBrowne, Elliott Martin Browne (1900–80), English director and producer, was to direct the first production of Murder in the Cathedral: see Biographical Register.

Browne, Henzie (née Raeburn), meets TSE at Chichester, and initial discussions of The Rock with TSE, discusses unwritten pageant scenes, in Family Reunion, asks after EH, looking after her two boys, in Old Man of the Mountains, stands in for Henrietta Watson in Family Reunion, marks TSE's OM with party, as Cocktail Party understudy, as actress,
Cocktail Party, The, copy inscribed to Miss Swan, Martin Browne's preference for a popular play, plot ruminated, still a distant prospect, deferred by war, at last begun, being written, EH begs TSE to continue, stimulated by the Martin Brownes, titled and nearly drafted, interrupted, attempts to reconcile EH to title, to be discussed with Brownes, to be continued in Princeton, end in prospect, TSE rewriting, alternative titles, its star appeal, 1949 Edinburgh Festival production, Martin Browne to produce, production schedule, the Martin Browne collaboration, 'reading' for, reviewed, cuts made during rehearsal, TSE's opening-night impressions, stage-set for, copy to be sent to EH, EH on, TSE disavows autobiographical basis, post-Edinburgh prospects, 1949 Theatre Royal, Brighton run, its fate, closing, 1950 New York transfer, TSE skeptical of, its fate, being negotiated, fixed, revisions made in mind of, alarmingly successful, royalties from, prospects beyond 1 June 1950, final act still being rewritten, its reception, EH's second opinion on, 1950 New Theatre production, preliminary week in Southsea, its fate, opening night, to close with provinicial tour, comes off at New Theatre, Mrs Nef's reading-group reading, in which TSE reads Reilly, and casting for Confidential Clerk, its first draft, difficult to produce in France, 1954 Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier production, reception, Muriel Spark on, EH detects hidden meaning in,
Daily Telegraph, now government mouthpiece, reviews Murder, schmoozed by TSE, reviews Family Reunion, reviews The Cocktail Party,
Eliot, Esmé Valerie (née Fletcher, TSE's second wife), comes highly recommended as secretary, which she recalls becoming, ticked off indirectly by EH, but exclupated by TSE, on leave in Leeds, fending off invitations for TSE, types up The Confidential Clerk, gets EH ticket to Confidential Clerk, vets Muriel Spark, helps TSE with Christmas cards, marries TSE, TSE on marrying and widowing, EH congratulates on marrying TSE, continues temporarily as secretary, writes to EH, installed as newlywed at Kensington Court Gardens, TSE collecting photographs for, her father's death, receives photo from EH, and the Hale letters, Theresa on TSE's relations with, nurses TSE, shielded from EH's importunities, admired by EH, admired by TSE's family, urged to correspond with EH, meets EH,

7.EsméEliot, Esmé Valerie (née Fletcher, TSE's second wife) Valerie Fletcher (1926–2012) started work as TSE’s secretary on 12 Sept. 1949, and became his second wife on 10 Jan. 1957; after his death in Jan. 1965, his literary executor and editor: see 'Valerie Eliot' in Biographical Register.

Eliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister), described, her reading habits, not a suitable confidant, TSE reflects on reunion with, Symphony concerts with TSE, to the cinema with TSE, delighted with first Norton lecture, recommends TSE hairdresser for baldness, attends second Norton lecture, hosts birthday party for Margaret, remembered in St. Louis, worried by Dodo's manner, TSE's pride in, vigilant on TSE's health, on Randolph family holiday, congratulates TSE on separation, 1934 summer in England with Dodo, July arrival anticipated, arrangements for, visit to Chipping Campden, off to Salisbury, walks to Kelmscott, returns from Winchester, forces Regent's Park on TSE, excessively humble, next to Ada in TSE's affections, protects TSE from overbearing Hinkleys, supported Landon over FDR, co-hosts Murder party, 1939 summer in England with Dodo, trip in doubt, Southwold week planned, due 19 June, taken to Dulwich, ballet and dinner with, Southwold holiday with, given to post-lunch naps, sends Christmas supplies to Shamley, as correspondent, easiest Eliot in Ada's absence, experiences crisis, importance as sister, Henry's fondness for, devoutly Unitarian, ignorant of Henry's true condition, undernourished, abortive 1948 summer in England, cancelled, which comes as relief, hosts family dinner-party, letter about Nobel Prize to, TSE leaves money with, 1949 visit to England with Dodo, June arrival anticipated, plans for, EH bids 'bon voyage', visit to Cambridge, return from Southwold, Borders tour, Basil Street Hotel stay, Thanksgiving with, reports on Dr Perkins's funeral, efforts to support financially, tethered to Margaret, joins TSE in St. Louis, 1954 trip to England with Dodo, visit to Ely and Cambridge, in light of Margaret's death, invoked against EH, TSE to Theresa on,

1.Marian/MarionEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister) Cushing Eliot (1877–1964), fourth child of Henry Ware Eliot and Charlotte Eliot: see Biographical Register.

Fabers, the, model of happiness and respectability, their domestic situation, Faber children to tea chez Eliot, visit TSE at Pike's Farm, compared to the Morleys, closer to TSE than to VHE, 1933 summer holiday with, Ty Glyn Aeron described, request TSE to write play, too absorbed in their children, at the Morleys' party, give anti-Nazi party for author, host poker party, 1934 summer holiday with, take TSE to lunch in Oxford, 1935 summer holiday with, for which the children are bought tent, give party, 1936 summer holiday with, at Morleys' Thanksgiving Day party, sail model boats with TSE, and TSE's foggy adventure, cinema-going with TSE, take TSE to Witch of Edmonton, and Morleys take TSE to pantomime, and TSE attend opening of Ascent of F6, 1937 summer holiday with, and the Bradfield Greek play, School for Scandal with, take TSE to pantomime again, 1938 summer holiday with, 1939 summer holiday with, offer possible wartime refuge, 1940 summer holiday with, host TSE in Hampstead during war, TSE makes bread sauce for, brought vegetables from Shamley, move to Minsted, and TSE attend musical revue, 1941 summer holiday with, Minsted as substitute for nursing-home, trying to sell Welsh home, take TSE to International Squadron, invite TSE to Wales for Christmas, host TSE at Minsted, away fishing in Scotland, mourn TSE's post-war independence, 1947 Minsted summer stay, 1948 Minsted summer stay, host TSE for weekend, on 1950 South Africa trip, on TSE's 1951 Spain trip, 1951 Minsted summer stay, 1952 Minsted summer stay, 1953 Minsted summer stay, on 1953–4 South Africa trip, 35th wedding anniversary weekend,
Family Reunion, The, and TSE as Orestes, plot sought for, progress stalled, referred to as 'Orestes play', written against countdown to war, should be artistically a stretch, plot still not settled on, begun, compared to Murder, TSE on writing, described (mid-composition), and Gunn's Carmina Gadelica, described to GCF, EH questions Harry's entrance, draft read to Martin Brownes, projected autumn 1938 production, depletes TSE, and Mourning Becomes Electra, its Greek inheritance, alternatively 'Follow the Furies', first draft promised to EH, as inspired by Tenebrae, being rewritten, work suspended till summer, fair copy being typed, waiting on Browne and Dukes, 'Follow the Furies' quashed by EH, aspires to be Chekhovian, Dukes keen to produce, criticised by Martin Browne, under revision, submitted to EH's theatrical wisdom, for which TSE credits her, possible John Gielgud production, Gielgud-level casting, Browne's final revisions, with the printers, Henry loaned draft, Donat and Saint-Denis interested, in proof, progress towards staging stalled, Saint-Denis interest tempered, possible Tyrone Guthrie production, possible limited Mercury run, its defects, publication scheduled, first draft sent to EH, Michael Redgrave interested in, March 1939 Westminster Theatre production, waits on terms, rehearsals for, which are photographed, opening night contemplated without EH, last-minute flutters, opening night, reception, coming off, TSE's final visit to, Dukes bullish on New York transfer, EH spurs TSE's reflections on, and Otway's Venice Preserv'd, American reception, and Orson Welles, F&F's sales, 1940 American production, Henry harps on the personal aspect, its cheerfulness, EH acknowledges part in, 1943 ADC production, in Dadie Rylands's hands, described, certain lines expressing TSE's frustrations, EH discusses with pupils, plays in Zurich, 1946 Birmingham production, 1946 Mercury revival, rehearsals for, opening night, TSE attends again in company, Spanish translation of, VHE's death calls to mind, its deficiencies, BBC Gielgud broadcast version, first aired, to be repeated, goes nominally with The Cocktail Party, Swedish National Theatre production, compared to Cocktail Party, EH's response to, more 'personal' than Cocktail Party, performed in Göttingen, 1950 Düsseldorf production, 1953 New York production vetoed, 1956 Phoenix Theatre revival, described, Peter Brook congratulated on, Martin Browne seeks MS of,
Flemyng, Robert,

5.RobertFlemyng, Robert Flemyng (1912–95): British actor of stage and screen, came to prominence in Terence Rattigan’s French Without Tears (1936) and in a Ben Travers farce, Banana Ridge (1938). After distinguished service in the Royal Army Medical Corps, for which he was awarded the Military Cross and appointed OBE, he played Edward Chamberlayne in The Cocktail Party. He later starred in stage productions; films including The Blue Lamp (1950) and The Quiller Memorandum (1966); and episodes of the 1960s British TV series Compact.

Guinness, Alec, as Hamlet, in Martin Browne's Coriolanus, desires to act for TSE, keen on Cocktail Party, at Cocktail Party reading, praised by The Times, in The Cocktail Party, 'most intelligent' British actor, desires London Cocktail Party production, superior to Rex Harrison, at TSE's Cocktail Party buffet, would turn down anyone for TSE, presses TSE for new play, wouldn't work for Sherek,

5.AlecGuinness, Alec Guinness (1914–2000), distinguished English actor: see Biographical Register.

Jeans, Ursula, in Cocktail Party reading, as Lavinia,

2.RogerLivesey, Roger Livesey (1906–76), Welsh stage and screen actor, was marriedJeans, Ursula to the English stage and film actor Ursula Jeans (1906–73) – Lavinia Chamberlayne in The Cocktail Party.

Morgan, Charles, Flashing Stream, TSE's obiter dictum on, EVE's quondam employer,
Nesbitt, Cathleen (née Kathleen Mary Nesbitt), in Cocktail Party reading, reputation enhanced by Cocktail Party, praised by The Times, at cast buffet,

1.CathleenNesbitt, Cathleen (née Kathleen Mary Nesbitt) Nesbitt, née Kathleen Mary Nesbitt (1888–1982), English actor of stage, screen and TV (she was encouraged to take up acting by Sarah Bernhardt, a friend of her father’s). Educated at Queen’s University, Belfast, and at the Sorbonne, she first acted in a revival of Arthur Wing Pinero’s The Cabinet Minister (1910). In 1912 she became the fiancée of the poet Rupert Brooke (who was to die in the war). She starred as the mischievously perceptive Julia Shuttlethwaite in The Cocktail Party. Later best known for her roles in film, she starred as Mrs Higgins in My Fair Lady (with Rex Harrison, 1956); as Cary Grant’s grandmother in An Affair to Remember (1957); as Lady Matheson in Separate Tables (1958), and in Alfred Hitchcock’s final film Family Plot (1976). Appointed CBE for her services to drama, 1978.

Sherek, Henry, dissuades TSE from coaching actors, confounds TSE's expectations, recommends New York Cocktail Party transfer, suffers girth-induced sciatica, desires three TSE plays in repertory, which TSE resists, lordly behaviour over Confidential Clerk, American Confidential Clerk production, takes Confidential Clerk to Paris, which proves a misadventure,
see also Shereks, the

4.HenrySherek, Henry Sherek (1900–1967), theatre producer: see Biographical Register.

Smith, Theodora ('Dodo') Eliot (TSE's niece), 1931 visit to England, described, to lunch with Lucia Joyce and Barbara Hutchinson, TSE's almost fatherly affection for, in contrast to her sister, at Eliot family Thanksgiving, attends second Norton lecture, TSE reports on from Boston, TSE cultivates, and Marion's 1934 visit to England, visit to Chipping Campden, visit to Salisbury, walk with TSE to Kelmscott, Regent's Park visit, TSE on, 1935 visit to England, taken to the ballet, at the Russian ballet's Aurore, to tea with cousins, her way of addressing relations, TSE tells Trevelyan about, 1936 visit to England, ballet outing, taken to Cheetham's pageant, taken to Kensington Gardens, returns to America with TSE, 1938 visit to England, with Chardy, and Marion's 1939 visit to England, in doubt, Southwold week, taken to Dulwich, taken to ballet and dinner, writes to TSE, visited in Baltimore, 1949 visit to England, taken to Cambridge, then to Southwold, tours the Borders with TSE, 1950 visit to England, taken to The Cocktail Party, due for the summer, recovering from operation, arrives from Scotland, 1953 visit to England, in Edinburgh for Confidential Clerk, 1954 visit to England, 1955 visit to England, reports on the American weather, 1956 visit to England,

2.TheodoraSmith, Theodora ('Dodo') Eliot (TSE's niece) Eliot Smith (1904–92) – ‘Dodo’ – daughter of George Lawrence and Charlotte E. Smith: see Biographical Register. Theodora’sSmith, Charlotte ('Chardy') Stearns (TSE's niece) sister was Charlotte Stearns Smith (b. 1911), known as ‘Chardy’.

Times, The, no longer reliable, no longer government mouthpiece, 'Eclipse of the Highbrow' controversy, reviews The Cocktail Party,
travels, trips and plans, EH's 1930 trip to England, EH's proposed 1931 England visit, called off, EH's 1932 summer holidays, the Eliots' Derby Day excursion, related, the Eliots' July 1932 Hindhead visit, the Eliots' August 1932 Eastbourne holiday, described, TSE's 1932–3 year in America, Norton Professorship offered to TSE, and the prospect of reunion with EH, which TSE refuses to see as decisive, which angers EH, who writes and destroys a response, TSE's financial imperatives, TSE's itinerary, and the question of discretion, opportunity for adventurous lecture-tours, TSE speculates on attendant feelings, TSE on the voyage over, TSE reflects on, TSE's return from, the Eliot family's Randolph holiday, TSE's 1933 westward tour to Scripps, proposed to EH, and TSE's need to lecture, possibly via St. Louis, TSE's itinerary, possible stopover in Seattle, a shameful source of happiness, still a happy thought, described by Havens and others, TSE reflects on, TSE's return from, TSE wonders at after-effect on EH, EH urged to reflect honestly on, Ada on, and a conversation about divorce, in EH's recollection, possible EH 1933 summer in England, TSE's 1933 Faber summer holiday, set for mid-August, postponed, rearranged, TSE buys summer outfits for, described, TSE's 1933 tour of Scotland, possible itinerary, Morley's preparations for, described for EH, TSE's 1933 trip to Paris, mooted, described, EH's 1934–5 year in Europe, TSE delighted at the prospect, attempts to coordinate with TSE's 1934 summer plans, the Perkinses due in Chipping Camden, EH's itinerary, TSE's initial weekend at Chipping Campden, TSE books rooms in Lechlade, TSE visits Campden again with family, and again alone, which visit TSE reflects on, TSE's plans to entertain EH en route to Europe, EH's continental itinerary, VHE and propriety inhibit pre-Paris arrangements, L'Escargot lunch, weekend in Sussex for EH's birthday, possible London tea-party, second lunch at L'Escargot, EH and TSE's November excursions, a month which TSE reflects happily on, EH's summer 1935 plans, EH departs England, EH in Florence, arrived in Rome, TSE coordinating with EH's return, TSE recommends Siena, EH returns to Florence, EH sails for Riviera, EH returns from France, L'Escargot lunch on EH's return, EH sails for Guernsey, May 1935, EH's June 1935 London sortie, TSE attends Dr Perkins's birthday, TSE's July 1935 Campden week, TSE offers to fund EH in London, where EH joins Jeanie McPherrin, TSE's Campden birthday weekend, prospect of EH spending month at Blomfield Terrace, Thorp theatre outing, TSE's 6–8 September Campden weekend, EH staying at 19 Rosary Gardens, EH to Campden for 15–17 November, EH sails for Boston, EH and TSE's final farewell, TSE and EH's final weeks in London, their excursion to Finchampstead, TSE reflects on, excursion to Greenwich, EH reflects on the final weeks of, TSE's 1934 Faber summer holiday, described, TSE's dream of Cairo, TSE's invitation to Finland, palmed off on Robert Nichols, TSE's 1935 tour of Scotland, proposed by Blake, attempts to coordinate with EH, TSE's itinerary, TSE's 1935 Faber summer holiday, TSE writes from, described, TSE's 1936 visit to Ireland, TSE's itinerary, recounted, TSE's spring/summer 1936 trip to Paris, first contemplated, date fixed, Morleys invited, TSE's itinerary, recounted, TSE's 1936 Faber summer holiday, TSE writes from, TSE's 1936 American trip, spring arrival dependent on New York Murder, if not spring, then autumn, possible excursions, autumn better for seeing EH, and possible Princeton offer, and possible Smith visit, efforts to coordinate with EH, passage on Alaunia booked, TSE's itinerary, Murder to pay for, coordinating with Eliot Randolph holiday, the moment of parting from EH, TSE's birthday during, TSE reflects on, TSE's 1937 tour of Scotland, itinerary, recounted, the Morley–Eliot 1937 trip to Salzburg, contemplated, itinerary, EH receives postcard from, described, as relayed to OM, EH's 1937 summer in England, and Mrs Seaverns, EH accompanies TSE to Edinburgh, itinerary coordinated with EH, dinner at L'Escargot, TSE's 10–11 July Campden visit, TSE's 17–22 July Campden visit, TSE's 21 August Campden visit, EH travels to Yorkshire, TSE reminisces about, TSE's 1937 Faber summer holiday, TSE reports from, leaves TSE sunburnt, TSE's 1938 trip to Lisbon, outlined to EH, TSE advised on, travel arrangements, the voyage out, described, EH's 1938 summer in England, and whether EH should spend it at Campden, EH's arrival confirmed, TSE's July Campden visit, EH's late-July London stay, TSE's 5–21 August Campden fortnight, TSE's 3–6 September Campden visit, EH's September London stay, TSE reflects on, TSE's 1938 Faber summer holiday, TSE's preparations for, TSE reports from, possible EH England Christmas 1938 visit, possible TSE 1939 visit to America, mooted for spring, complicated by Marion and Dodo's trip, shifted to autumn, threatened by war, made impossible, EH's 1939 England visit, TSE's efforts to coordinate with, threatened by war, complicated by Marion's arrival, EH's itinerary, EH's initial London stay, TSE's 7–20 July Campden visit, TSE's 22–30 August Campden visit, TSE's 2–4 September Campden visit, EH again London, EH and TSE's parting moments, in TSE's memory, memory vitiated by EH's subsequent letter, TSE's 1939 Faber summer holiday, TSE writes from, possible wartime transatlantic crossings, contingencies, in case of EH being ill, TSE's reasons for and against, and TSE's New York proposition, following invasion Denmark and Norway, impossible for TSE unless official, TSE's desire to remain in England, TSE's reasons for and against accepting lectureship, given Ada's impending death, TSE's abortive 1940 Italian mission, possible but confidential, lectures prepared for, and the prospect of seeing EP, might include Paris, itinerary, in jeopardy, final preparations for, cancelled, TSE's 1940 visit to Dublin, approved by Foreign Office, in national interest, itinerary, recounted, involves TSE's first plane-journey, TSE's 1940 Faber summer holiday, TSE reports from, TSE's 1941 Faber summer holiday, Kipling and fishing-rod packed for, TSE reports from, TSE's 1941 Northern tour, proposed by the Christendom group, arranged with Demant, itinerary, recounted, TSE's 1942 British Council mission to Sweden, TSE makes cryptic allusion to, as recounted to EH, as recounted to JDH, return leg in London, as war-work, TSE's 1942 New Forest holiday, described, TSE's 1942 week in Scotland, recounted, TSE's abortive 1942 Iceland mission, TSE's 1943 trip to Edinburgh, recounted, TSE's abortive 1943 Iceland mission, TSE's 1943 New Forest holiday, TSE's 1944 trip to Edinburgh, TSE's abortive 1944 North Africa mission, TSE's May 1945 trip to Paris, described, TSE's June 1945 trip to Paris, recounted, possible post-war American visit, and Henry's impending death, ideally ancillary to work, possibly as F&F's representative, waits on TSE's health and Carlyle Mansions, TSE's 1945 September fortnight in Lee, described, TSE's 1945 Christmas in Lee, described, TSE's 1946 summer in America, date for passage fixed, paperwork for, TSE's itinerary, its aftermath, recounted, TSE's 1947 summer in America, dependent on lecture engagements, TSE seeks to bring forward, Henry's condition brings further forward, set for April, itinerary, EH reflects on, TSE's scheduled December 1947 visit to Marseilles and Rome, itinerary, TSE's preparations for, dreaded, Roman leg described by Roger Hinks, EH's hypothetical March 1948 visit to England, TSE's postponed 1948 trip to Aix, itinerary, recounted, home via Paris, TSE's 1948 trip to America, itinerary, TSE's visit to EH in Andover, disrupted by Nobel Prize, TSE's 1948 Nobel Prize visit to Stockholm, itinerary, recounted, TSE's 1949 family motor-tour of Scotland, described, TSE's October–November 1949 trip to Germany, possible itinerary, preparations for, final itinerary, TSE's account of, the return via Belgium, TSE's January 1950 voyage to South Africa, all but fixed, itinerary, described by TSE, recounted by Faber, EH's 1950 summer in England, TSE books EH's hotel room for, TSE's efforts to coordinate with EH's movements, EH in Campden, TSE reports to Aunt Edith on, TSE's 1950 visit to America, and TSE's possible Chicago post, the Chicago leg, November itinerary, TSE's spring 1951 trip to Spain, itinerary, recounted, TSE's September 1951 Geneva stay, itinerary, recounted, TSE's 1951 British Council mission to Paris, recounted, TSE's second 1951 British Council mission to Paris, recounted, TSE's 1952 visit to Rennes and the Riviera, itinerary, recounted, TSE's 1952 visit to America, itinerary, efforts to coordinate with EH's summer, TSE on meeting with EH, TSE's 1952 rest cure in Switzerland, TSE's 1953 visit to St. Louis and America, set for June, to include fortnight in Cambridge, itinerary, EH's 1953 trip to England, EH's Alnwick plans, TSE books hotel for EH, and EH's ticket to Confidential Clerk, TSE's 1953 visit to Geneva, TSE's 1953–4 trip to South Africa, itinerary, described, arrival described to JDH, GCF on, TSE's 1954 Geneva rest cure, Geneva preferred to Paris, TSE's deferred 1955 visit to Hamburg, prospect inspires reluctance in TSE, proposed for spring 1955, dreaded, TSE now returned from, TSE's 1955 visit to America, and contingent speaking engagements, foreshortened, itinerary, Washington described, TSE's return from, TSE's 1955 Geneva rest cure, TSE's 1956 visit to America, passage fixed for April, itinerary, TSE in the midst of, TSE reflects on, TSE's 1956 Geneva rest cure, itinerary, recounted, illness during, EH's 1957 visit to England, TSE and EVE invited to Campden, TSE reciprocates with London invitation, but EH leaves England abruptly, which TSE consults Eleanor Hinkley over, who duly explains, TSE and EVE's 1958 trip to America, as rumoured to EH, EH's 1959 tour of Scandinavia, funded by bequest from cousin, TSE and EVE's 1959 trip to America, TSE and EVE's 1963 trip to America,
Worth, Irene, reputation enhanced by Cocktail Party, praised by The Times, in The Cocktail Party, intelligent, compared to Margaret Leighton, as Celia, in The Queen and the Rebels,

6.IreneWorth, Irene Worth (1916–2002), hugely talented American stage and screen actor, was to progress from TSE’s play to international stardom on stage and screen. She joined the Old Vic company in 1951, as a leading actor under Tyrone Guthrie; and in 1953 she appeared at the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, where her appearances included a further partnership with Alec Guinness (Hotel Paradiso). In 1962 she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Aldwych Theatre, London, where her roles included a remorseless Goneril to Paul Scofield’s Lear in Peter Brook’s production of King Lear. In 1968 she played a dynamic Jocasta in Brook’s production of Seneca’s Oedipus (trans. Ted Hughes) – featuring a huge golden phallus – alongside John Gielgud. Numerous acting awards fell to her remarkable work: a BAFTA, and three Tony Awards including the award for Best Actress in a Play for Tiny Alice (1965), and yet another Tony for Best Featured Actress in Lost in Yonkers (1991).