[No surviving envelope]
I had had your previous letter for several days, when to my surprise and please [sc. pleasure] your letter of September 22nd arrived on the morning of the 26th: so it was very well timed, and much more gladdening than a cable. Also the letters themselves gave me much pleasure, and you have also reminded me of things which I forgot * [sic] I always forget something in letters. First, I did receive your cable on the eve of the first night, and I thank you very much for it. ThenCocktail Party, The1949 Edinburgh Festival production;d1cuts made during rehearsal;a7, thank you for your criticism of the play itself. In the production, what you have as Act II was run as Scene II of Act I. The purpose was to shorten the evening to the extent of cutting out one interval. Unfortunately, III and IV could not be run together in the same way because of the change of scene. The effect is lop-sided; it is now Act I that is much too long; if one act in the middle could simply have been dropped out, the play would have been the right length. We have cut and cut and pieced together, as well as we can, and it is still too long.
NowCocktail Party, Thepost-Edinburgh prospects;d5 about theCocktail Party, The1950 New York transfer;d7being negotiated;a3 future of the play. SherekSherek, Henryrecommends New York Cocktail Party transfer;a4 tells me that none of the London theatre managers want to take it on now, and that he can’t get a London theatre until the spring at the earliest. SoMiller, Gilbertnegotiating Cocktail Party's transfer;a3 he has been discussing it with Gilbert Miller1 (a famous name, I believe, in the New York theatre) who is much interested, and has offered him a theatre immediately after Christmas. I was much averse to taking it to New York first, because I am sure there is at least an initial public waiting for it in London; and, of course, my friends here express indignation and humiliation that London can’t take it, especially at a time when the level of plays is so very low. (It’s very curious: we have a number of first rate actors and actresses here, and they have to act in such bad plays.) However, the most cogent argument is, that if he takes the play to New York in December, he can keep this excellent cast together; whereas if he merely waited for a London theatre, we should probably have to assemble a new cast. And it’s not merely that these people are so good, but that they all seem very keen on the play itself. So it is just possible that you may be able to see it before I see it again myself. I can’t really afford to come over for it, because I can’t spare the time to come over twice this year, and I must take a longish holiday as soon as I can. Itravels, trips and plansTSE's January 1950 voyage to South Africa;g9all but fixed;a1 haveFabers, theon 1950 South Africa trip;i1 practically agreed to go out to Cape Town with the Fabers in January, spend a week at the Cape, and take the next boat back: that would give me five weeks away, including four weeks at sea. AndUniversity of Chicago'The Aims of Education' being prepared for;a2 apart from wanting the holiday as soon as I can get it, the sensible thing seems to be to take a holiday before [I] start on composing my Chicago lectures – I haven’t even had time to think about a subject yet.
ICocktail Party, The1949 Edinburgh Festival production;d1TSE's opening-night impressions;a8 was too nervous, the first night, to get much of an impression; for one thing, I was nervous about the actors dropping their cues or getting their lines wrong as the family of a beginner are at her first amateur performance. And, in a box, one did not feel in touch with the audience; I was told that they responded enthusiastically, but I shouldn’t have known the difference if they had been merely being polite. So I was surprised by the good reviews. (I believe that some of the cheaper press, The Daily Mail and Express for instance, were rather disparaging: I did not see these).2 AndGuinness, Alecin The Cocktail Party;a9 by the way, itWorth, Irenein The Cocktail Party;a3 seems to be Act III (in your version, the consulting room scene) that went over best; Guinness and Irene Worth did an awfully good job; and the effect of the last act depends so much on the impression made by the end of the previous.
TheSmith, Theodora ('Dodo') Eliot (TSE's niece)1949 visit to England;d1tours the Borders with TSE;a7 motorEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister)1949 visit to England with Dodo;g1Borders tour;a9 tourtravels, trips and plansTSE's 1949 family motor-tour of Scotland;g7described;a2 toScotlandthe Borders;c3;a1Edinburgh
DoLewis, Wyndhamsecond portrait acquired by Magdalene;c3 you know, it never occurred to me to ask about photographs of my portrait. IMagdalene College, Cambridgehouses Lewis portrait of TSE;b3 will ask Wyndham Lewis whether he had a photograph taken before it went to Magdalene. I have not seen it since it was framed: I should have liked to go down to Cambridge, and see it hung; butMerton College, OxfordGaudy at;a6 I don’t think I can spare the time, especially as I have to go down next week for one night to Oxford, to attend a Merton Gaudy.7 If I can get a photograph I will send you one.
Welltravels, trips and plansTSE's October–November 1949 trip to Germany;g8preparations for;a8, I have now written out my three addresses for Germany, and'Speech for Les Grandes Conférences catholiques';a1 must turn to my short discours de reception for Brussels, which will have to be translated into French.8
IPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle);i1 am sorry to hear about Uncle John.9 IPerkins, Edith (EH's aunt);j4 always felt that Aunt Edith, even with her disabilities, was likely to outlive him.
I am very glad if you got at least a different impression of the play on a second reading.
The California snapshot I have in an album with many others. And thank you for the Campobello – for the first moment I thought you had taken to trousers (there are far too many trousers in Chelsea, especially on a Sunday morning). And now you have started term, I shall be interested to know what play you choose next.
To-dayNason, Margaret ('Meg') Geraldineand sister to lunch;b9 I am taking Meg Nason and her sister (whom I have never seen) to lunch. I had a pathetic letter from Meg which I shall send you. She didn’t want to bring the sister, who appears to be rather eccentric and self-centred; but the sister (who has tried to get me to come out to Richmond to see her) had got to the point of grievance thinking that Meg was preventing her from meeting me: so it must be done.
1.Gilbert Miller (1884–1969), American theatrical producer (who also managed the St James’s Theatre in London). In 1965 he was to be given a Special Tony Award ‘for having produced 88 plays and musicals’. His wife was Kathryn (Bache) Miller (1896–1979). TSE had obviously forgotten Miller’s involvement with the first New York production of Murder in the Cathedral in 1938 (see above).
2.The Daily Mail did not review The Cocktail Party.
3.PatriciaMaxwell-Scott, Patricia Maxwell-Scott (1921–98) married in 1944 Sir Christian Boulton, 4th Baronet, but retained her maiden name. She was to become Laird and Chatelaine of Abbotsford on her father’s death in 1954.
4.SirConstable-Maxwell-Scott, Sir Walter, 1st Baronet Walter Constable-Maxwell-Scott, 1st Baronet, DSO (1875–1954) – British Army officer (retired 1934), and great-great-grandson of the novelist Sir Walter Scott – inherited Abbotsford House from his mother in 1920.
5.JosephChiari, Joseph Chiari (1911–89): French poet, author, diplomat. ‘Following the collapse of France I answered General de Gaulle’s appeal on the day he made it, the 18th June, and as I was unfit for military service, as soon as a French organisation was set up I was sent to Scotland as its political and cultural envoy. I met Eliot some time in 1943, through a mutual friend, Denis Saurat, who was Professor of French at King’s College and Director of the French Institute in London’ (T. S. Eliot: A Memoir [1997], 19). Chiari also held teaching posts at London and Manchester. A prolific author, his publications include Contemporary French Poetry, with foreword by TSE (1952); Symbolism from Poe to Mallarmé: The Growth of a Myth (1956); T. S. Eliot: Poet and Dramatist (1975).
6.ChiariChiari, Josephand TSE's Borders motor-tour;a1, T. S. Eliot: A Memoir, 21: ‘Onetravels, trips and plansTSE's 1949 family motor-tour of Scotland;g7described;a2 day we chose to absent ourselves from these festivities [at the Festival]; we therefore hired a car and we spent a memorable day touring the south-eastern border of Scotland, the beautiful Valley of the Tweed. We visited the remains of the famous Gothic Abbey of Dryburgh, and those of Jedburgh, with Mary Stuart’s house in the distance, whence hounded by her enemies, she set off on her long night ride to bring Bothwell to her sister. Later we had lunch by the window of a picturesque little hotel in Kelso called The Ednam House, which lies nestled at a bend of the Tweed, from which one could see both the splendid remains of the Norman Abbey at Kelso and the impressive façade of Roxburgh Castle. From there we went on to visit the remains of Melrose Abbey, musing through its old cemetery, and thence drove along green-covered banks to Walter Scott’s legend-haunted house Abbotsford, overlooking the dark water of the Tweed where we were warmly received and shown round by the owners, the Maxwell Scotts. We took some photographs of this day’s journey, but alas to my deep regret I seem to have lost them in the course of my various removals.’
TSE to Geoffrey Faber, Trinity XI (28 Aug.) 1949: ‘Tea at Abbotsford impoverished & charming with Sir Walter’s descendants.’
7.TSE spent the night of 4 Oct. as the guest of the Warden of Merton. TSE to Mary Trevelyan, ‘The Guardian Angels’ (2 Oct. 1949): ‘I felt it was a civility I owed Merton.’
8.‘Speech for Les Grandes Conférences catholiques’, Brussels, 4 Dec. 1949: CProse 7, 446–50.
9.Dr Perkins must have been taken ill. He was to die over a year later, on 23 Dec. 1950.
5.JosephChiari, Joseph Chiari (1911–89): French poet, author, diplomat. ‘Following the collapse of France I answered General de Gaulle’s appeal on the day he made it, the 18th June, and as I was unfit for military service, as soon as a French organisation was set up I was sent to Scotland as its political and cultural envoy. I met Eliot some time in 1943, through a mutual friend, Denis Saurat, who was Professor of French at King’s College and Director of the French Institute in London’ (T. S. Eliot: A Memoir [1997], 19). Chiari also held teaching posts at London and Manchester. A prolific author, his publications include Contemporary French Poetry, with foreword by TSE (1952); Symbolism from Poe to Mallarmé: The Growth of a Myth (1956); T. S. Eliot: Poet and Dramatist (1975).
4.SirConstable-Maxwell-Scott, Sir Walter, 1st Baronet Walter Constable-Maxwell-Scott, 1st Baronet, DSO (1875–1954) – British Army officer (retired 1934), and great-great-grandson of the novelist Sir Walter Scott – inherited Abbotsford House from his mother in 1920.
1.Marian/MarionEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister) Cushing Eliot (1877–1964), fourth child of Henry Ware Eliot and Charlotte Eliot: see Biographical Register.
5.AlecGuinness, Alec Guinness (1914–2000), distinguished English actor: see Biographical Register.
7.WyndhamLewis, Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957), painter, novelist, philosopher, critic: see Biographical Register.
3.PatriciaMaxwell-Scott, Patricia Maxwell-Scott (1921–98) married in 1944 Sir Christian Boulton, 4th Baronet, but retained her maiden name. She was to become Laird and Chatelaine of Abbotsford on her father’s death in 1954.
5.GilbertMiller, Gilbert Miller (1884–1969); American theatrical producer. In 1950 he was to win a Tony Award for his production of The Cocktail Party. The Gilbert Miller–Ashley Dukes production of Murder in the Cathedral (with Miller taking a quarter-share in the enterprise, and Dukes three-quarters to secure artistic control), starring Robert Speaight, was to open at the Ritz Theatre, West 48th Street, New York City, on 16 Feb. 1938. It ran for 21 performances.
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.DrPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle) John Carroll Perkins (1862–1950), Minister of King’s Chapel, Boston: see Biographical Register.
4.HenrySherek, Henry Sherek (1900–1967), theatre producer: see Biographical Register.
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’.
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).