[No surviving envelope]

T. S.Eliot
EmilyHale
TS
Faber & Faber Ltd
5 March 1950
My Dear,

I'Preface' (to Thoughts for Meditation);a1 am trying at the moment to settle down to writing a preface to a mystical anthology by an Indian,1 a'Preface' (to English Poetry and its Contribution to the Knowledge of a Creative Principle);a1 preface to a philosophical analysis of English poetry by an Italian2 (both excellent works which the sales manager thought could only be marketed with a preface by myself) andTwain, MarkTSE's unfulfilled introduction to;a2 then an introduction to Huckleberry Finn (a book which I admire extravagantly)3 – theHayward, Johnquid pro quo with TSE;n4 last because Fabers wanted Hayward to do an anthology of English poetry for them, and Hayward, who is reader for the Cresset Press, would only agree to do it if I did Huck Finn for them (themCohen, Dennis;a1 is Denis [sc. Dennis] Cohen, who is a neighbour).4 But after IShapiro, Karl;a1 have written this letter and eaten my supper (this is Sunday night and the housekeeper will have left a tray of cold meat and cheese for me, and some coffee to hot up) IPoetrychanges editor;a1 must try to indite a message'Letter from T. S. Eliot. To the Editor of Poetry, A';a1 to Karl Shapiro, on the occasion of his taking over the editorship of Poetry Chicago,5 and'Message to Merkur';a1 a message to Hans Egon Holthusen for ‘Merkur’6 (messages, and testimonials for people who want professorships or fellowships, take up more time than I wish they did). AndGrumbar, J. C.;a1 I must try to think of the subject of my lunchtime chat to the Devonshire Club in April: thisAlliance Françaisereception for French president;a8 I was forced into by Monsieur Grumbar,7 the man who persuaded me to be a vice-president of the Alliance Française (which after I discovered that at certain times of the year the president is absent looking after his farm in Rhodesia, and I have to take the chair for him. And being vice-president of the Alliance Française, I have to go on Wednesday (all dressed up) to a reception of the President of the Republic at 10.30 p.m. at his Embassy.

All this sounds very lighthearted (to say nothing of having lunched to-day at the Spanish Embassy, whereSherek, Henrysuffers girth-induced sciatica;a5 I explained to the lady on my left how Mr. Henry Sherek got sciatica because he is so large round the waist that he can’t buckle the belt of an aeroplane belt round him; and discussed with the lady on my right the importance of teaching the elementary schoolchildren of Norfolk to perform on musical instruments – a point on which we seemed to see eye to eye: all this was because the Spanish chargé d’affaires (who would be an ambassador except that we can’t recognise a ‘fascist’ regime: but whatFuchs, Klaus;a1 a row that Fuchs affair has started,8 andStrachey, John;a1 I should not be sorry to see John Strachey9 in difficulties – my information is that he is just a very stupid man, a stupid ambitious man –) wanted to assemble a large number of representative Britons to go to hear a Spanish pianist at Covent Garden – who was indeed very good, struggling against a very inferior local conductor. Thus most of this Sunday (theSt. Stephen's Church, Gloucester Road;b7 morning having been given to St. Stephen’s) is spent. And whatUniversity of Chicago'The Aims of Education' being prepared for;a2 I really ought to be thinking about is the subject for my lectures in Chicago in the autumn.

(ItTimeTSE learns of Cocktail Party royalties in;a2 is maddening to have to give lectures in order to pay for a visit to America. AccordingCocktail Party, The1950 New York transfer;d7royalties from;b1 to TIME, I am making 1600 dollars a week from the play10 (I have had no account yet, so I don’t know what I shall get); I shall certainly sell a good many copies of the play there (a copy of the London edition is on its way to you); but I make quite enough for my needs here, and I want to be able to use the money there, as you know. I am to talk to my solicitor about that tomorrow.)

TheCocktail Party, The1950 New York transfer;d7prospects beyond 1 June 1950;b2 future of the play is very confused. Actors’ contracts expire on June 1st. AccordingBrowne, Elliott Martin1950 Cocktail Party New York transfer;f2 to Martin, MillerMiller, Gilbert;a6 wants to continue to run; AlecGuinness, Alecdesires London Cocktail Party production;b2 Guinness wants to perform the play in London – but Guinness’s agents say, on the other hand, that he has got to make a film for Rank. There is a suggestion that if the company goes on in New York a new company should be assembled here. All these rumours will be out of date in three days time, so better not to circulate them. MeanwhileFamily Reunion, The1950 Düsseldorf production;j5;a1 theGründgens, Gustafdirects The Family Reunion;a1 Familientag (Family Reunion) seems to have had a great success in Duesseldorf (the Germans would like a play like that) directed by the great Gustaf Gruendgens [sc. Gründgens],11 and earning D-Marks which I can spend only in Germany. InsideHoellering, George M.dressing set in disused church;b9 theMurder in the CathedralHoellering film;g1set-dressing;b3 disused church in St. John’s Wood, Hoellering has erected sections of a Norman cathedral which look so like granite that you have to tap the walls to assure yourself that they are papier-maché andGroser, Fr St. John B.to be screen-tested;a1 I am shortly to see some ‘rushes’ (whatever they are) of the Revd. John Groser as Becket.

I am impatient for news from you – IAmericaits horrors;c2'Easter holidays' not including Easter;b5 don’t know when your Easter vacation (a very brief one) comes except that I know it comes well before Easter – and I don’t know whether you are doing a play this term or not. I do hope that a letter is crossing this one.

Lovingly
Tom.

AlsoCocktail Party, The1950 New York transfer;d7final act still being rewritten;b3, I am still re-writing the last act. It has been agreed that it would be better to keep Peter on the stage until nearer the end – so I shall try to do it – but whether I can keep him on without giving him something more to say, and so lengthening the act, I don’t know.

1.Thoughts for Meditation: A Way to Recovery from Within: an anthology selected and arranged by N. Gangulee, with a preface by TSE (F&F, 1951).

2.Preface to English Poetry and its contribution to the knowledge of a creative principle (F&F, 1950), vii–xi, by Leone Vivante (1887–1970), philosopher and critic. CProse 7, 495–500. TSE inscribed Valerie Eliot’s copy on 5 Jan. 1960: ‘this strikes me as quite (meaning quite and not rather) a good preface. I am glad, my love, that you bought the book’ (TSE Library).

3.In the event, for unknown reasons, TSE did not do this work for the Cresset Press. See TSE, introduction to Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (F&F, 1950): CProse 7, 501–10.

4.DennisCohen, Dennis Cohen (1891–1970), independently wealthy editor and publisher; educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Oxford, he founded in 1927 the Cresset Press, which specialised in illustrated editions of classical works and editions de luxe (including Gulliver’s Travels decorated by Rex Whistler). TSE’s flatmate John Hayward was a literary adviser.

5.‘A Letter from T. S. Eliot. To the Editor of Poetry’, Poetry 76 (May 1950), 88: CProse 7, 473–4. KarlShapiro, Karl Shapiro (1913–2000), poet and critic, a graduate of the University of Virginia and Johns Hopkins University, served in the US Army through the war, was editor of Poetry, 1948–50. He was an opponent of the decision by the Bollingen Prize committee to make the award to EP for Pisan Cantos (1949). He taught English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 1956–66, and edited Prairie Schooner; and he served a term as Poetry Consultant at the Library of Congress. His works in poetry include Person, Place, and Thing (1942); V Letter and Other Poems (1945) and Poems of a Jew (1950); and he won prizes and awards including the Levison Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Shelley Memorial Prize.

6.‘Message to Merkur’ (written 6 Mar. 1950), published in the German monthly periodical Merkur: Deutsche Zeitschrift für europäische Denken (1950), 2: CProse 7, 578–9.

7.J. C. GrumbarGrumbar, J. C., MBE., served on the council of the Fédération Britannique.

8.KlausFuchs, Klaus Fuchs (1911–88) was a German theoretical physicist in exile who became a British citizen in 1939, and who spent time working on both the Manhattan Project in the Theoretical Physics Division at the Los Alamos Laboratory (he was present at the Trinity test in July 1945) and the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, England. He was first suspected of being a Russian spy in late 1949, and was convicted of espionage on 1 Mar. 1950 and sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment; and he ultimately made a full confession in January 1951. (After serving some nine years of his sentence, he was released in June 1959 and skedaddled to the German Democratic Republic, where he became a celebrated scientist.)

9.JohnStrachey, John Strachey (1901–1963) – son of John Strachey, editor of the Spectator – was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and went on to edit the Socialist Review, having joined the Labour Party in 1923. He was MP for Birmingham Aston, 1929–31, and was for a while a member of Sir Oswald Mosley’s New Party before joining the Communist Party from the later 1930s. He was Labour MP for Dundee (later Dundee West), 1945–63, serving as Minister for Food in 1946 (when he was made a Privy Counsellor) and Secretary of State for War, 1950–1. A Marxist-Leninist theorist of repute in the 1930s, he wrote The Coming Struggle for Power (1932) and The Menace of Fascism (1933). His former communism was criticised during the Fuchs affair.

10.‘Reflections: Mr. Eliot’, Time, 6 Mar. 1950: ‘Friends estimate that Eliot makes about £4,000 ($11,200) a year, including some £2,500 of royalties from his books and plays. His income from The Cocktail Party in Manhattan is about $1,600 a week.’

11.GustafGründgens, Gustaf Gründgens (1899–1963): famous, and famously controversial, German actor and director. He played the part of ‘Der Schränker’ (‘The Safecracker’) in Fritz Lang’s film M (1931), and earned authority as artistic director of a series of major theatres in Berlin, Düsseldorf and Hamburg. During WW2 he somehow found favour with the Nazis, and served on the Presidential Council of the Reichskulturkammer (Reich Chamber of Culture); Hermann Göring even added his name to the Gottbegnadeten (Important Artist Exempt List). In 1960 he was to be celebrated for his portrayal of Mephistopheles, in Goethe’s Faust. Despite being a known homosexual, Gründgens was briefly married, 1926–7, to the actor and writer Erika Mann (1905–69) – daughter of the author Thomas Mann – who was later to arrange a marriage of convenience with W. H. Auden. In 1936, while living in exile in Amsterdam, Klaus Mann – Gründgens’ quondam brother-in-law – published the novel Mephisto, in which the figure of Hendrik Höfgen – whose career is depicted as one of corruption and compromise with the Nazis – is based on the career of Gründgens; this roman-à-clef was published for the first time in Germany in 1956; and in 1981 it was to be filmed by István Szabó, with Klaus Brandauer starring as Höfgen. See Andrea Weiss, In the Shadow of the Magic Mountain: The Erika and Klaus Mann Story (Chicago, 2010) and Lara Feigel, The Bitter Taste of Victory: Life, Love, and Art in the Ruins of the Reich (2016).

Alliance Française, TSE British Federation council for, TSE gives lecture to, Maison Française opened in Oxford, where TSE stays, honours TSE with dinner, Annual Meeting in Birmingham, reception for French president, Annual Meeting in Newcastle, Annual Meeting at Brighton, TSE addresses in Edinburgh, council meeting of, Annual Meeting in Bristol,
America, TSE on not returning in 1915, and TSE as transatlantic cultural conduit, dependence on Europe, TSE's sense of deracination from, and the Great Depression, TSE a self-styled 'Missourian', as depicted in Henry Eliot's Rumble Murders, its national coherence questioned, its religious and educational future, versus Canadian and colonial society, where age is not antiquity, drinks Scotland's whisky, and FDR's example to England, underrates Europe's influence on England, redeemed by experience with G. I.'s, TSE nervous at readjusting to, and post-war cost of living, more alien to TSE post-war, its glories, landscape, cheap shoes, its horrors, Hollywood, climate, lack of tea, overheated trains, over-social clubs, overheating in general, perplexities of dress code, food, especially salad-dressing, New England Gothic, earthquakes, heat, the whistle of its locomotives, 'Easter holidays' not including Easter, the cut of American shirts, television, Andover, Massachusetts, EH moves to, Ann Arbor, Michigan, TSE on visiting, Augusta, Maine, EH stops in, Baltimore, Maryland, and TSE's niece, TSE engaged to lecture in, TSE on visiting, Bangor, Maine, EH visits, Bay of Fundy, EH sailing in, Bedford, Massachusetts, its Stearns connections, Boston, Massachusetts, TSE tries to recollect society there, its influence on TSE, its Museum collection remembered, inspires homesickness, TSE and EH's experience of contrasted, described by Maclagan, suspected of dissipating EH's energies, EH's loneliness in, Scripps as EH's release from, possibly conducive to TSE's spiritual development, restores TSE's health, its society, TSE's relations preponderate, TSE's happiness in, as a substitute for EH's company, TSE's celebrity in, if TSE were there in EH's company, its theatregoing public, The Times on, on Labour Day, Brunswick, Maine, TSE to lecture in, TSE on visiting, California, as imagined by TSE, TSE's wish to visit, EH suggests trip to Yosemite, swimming in the Pacific, horrifies TSE, TSE finds soulless, land of earthquakes, TSE dreads its effect on EH, Wales's resemblance to, as inferno, and Californians, surfeit of oranges and films in, TSE's delight at EH leaving, land of kidnappings, Aldous Huxley seconds TSE's horror, the lesser of two evils, Cannes reminiscent of, TSE masters dislike of, land of monstrous churches, TSE regrets EH leaving, winterless, its southern suburbs like Cape Town, land of fabricated antiquities, Cambridge, Massachusetts, TSE's student days in, socially similar to Bloomsbury, TSE lonely there but for Ada, TSE's happiness in, exhausting, EH's 'group' in, road safety in, Casco Bay, Maine, TSE remembers, Castine, Maine, EH holidays in, Cataumet, Massachusetts, EH holidays in, Chicago, Illinois, EH visits, reportedly bankrupt, TSE on, TSE takes up lectureship in, its climate, land of fabricated antiquities, Chocurua, New Hampshire, EH stays in, Concord, Massachusetts, EH's househunting in, EH moves from, Connecticut, its countryside, and Boerre, TSE's end-of-tour stay in, Dorset, Vermont, EH holidays in, and the Dorset Players, Elizabeth, New Jersey, TSE on visiting, Farmington, Connecticut, place of EH's schooling, which TSE passes by, EH holidays in, Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, EH recuperates in, Gerrish Island, Maine, TSE revisits, Hollywood, perceived debauchery of its movies, TSE's dream of walk-on part, condemned by TSE to destruction, TSE trusts Murder will be safe from, Iowa City, Iowa, TSE invited to, Jonesport, Maine, remembered, Kittery, Maine, described, Lexington, Massachusetts, and the Stearns family home, Lyndeborough, New Hampshire, visited by EH, Madison, Wisconsin, Aurelia Bolliger hails from, Ralph Hodgson sails for, EH summers in, as conceived by TSE, who eventually visits, Maine, its coast remembered by TSE, TSE recalls swimming off, Minneapolis, on EH's 1952 itinerary, TSE lectures in, New Bedford, Massachusetts, EH's holidays in, TSE's family ties to, New England, and Unitarianism, more real to TSE than England, TSE homesick for, in TSE's holiday plans, architecturally, compared to California, and the New England conscience, TSE and EH's common inheritance, springless, TSE remembers returning from childhood holidays in, its countryside distinguished, and The Dry Salvages, New York (N.Y.C.), TSE's visits to, TSE encouraged to write play for, prospect of visiting appals TSE, as cultural influence, New York theatres, Newburyport, Maine, delights TSE, Northampton, Massachusetts, TSE on, EH settles in, TSE's 1936 visit to, autumn weather in, its spiritual atmosphere, EH moves house within, its elms, the Perkinses descend on, Aunt Irene visits, Boerre's imagined life in, TSE on hypothetical residence in, EH returns to, Peterborough, New Hampshire, visited by EH, TSE's vision of life at, Petersham, Massachusetts, EH holidays in, TSE visits with the Perkinses, EH spends birthday in, Edith Perkins gives lecture at, the Perkinses cease to visit, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, TSE on, and TSE's private Barnes Foundation tour, Independence Hall, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, surrounding countryside, Portsmouth, Maine, delights TSE, Randolph, New Hampshire, 1933 Eliot family holiday in, the Eliot siblings return to, Seattle, Washington State, EH summers in, EH's situation at, TSE prefers to California, EH repairs to post-Christmas, EH visits on 1952 tour, EH returns to, Sebasco, Maine, EH visits, South, the, TSE's first taste of, TSE's prejudices concerning, St. Louis, Missouri, TSE's childhood in, TSE's homesickness for, TSE styling himself a 'Missourian', possible destination for TSE's ashes, resting-place of TSE's parents, TSE on his return to, the Mississippi, compared to TSE's memory, TSE again revisits, TSE takes EVE to, St. Paul, Minnesota, TSE on visiting, the Furness house in, Tryon, North Carolina, EH's interest in, EH staying in, Virginia, scene of David Garnett's escapade, and the Page-Barbour Lectures, TSE on visiting, and the South, Washington, Connecticut, EH recuperates in, West Rindge, New Hampshire, EH holidays at, White Mountains, New Hampshire, possible TSE and EH excursion to, Woods Hole, Falmouth, Massachusetts, TSE and EH arrange holiday at, TSE and EH's holiday in recalled, and The Dry Salvages, TSE invited to, EH and TSE's 1947 stay in, EH learns of TSE's death at,
see also American Presidential Election
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,
see also Brownes, the Martin

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.

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,
Cohen, Dennis,

4.DennisCohen, Dennis Cohen (1891–1970), independently wealthy editor and publisher; educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Oxford, he founded in 1927 the Cresset Press, which specialised in illustrated editions of classical works and editions de luxe (including Gulliver’s Travels decorated by Rex Whistler). TSE’s flatmate John Hayward was a literary adviser.

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,
Fuchs, Klaus,

8.KlausFuchs, Klaus Fuchs (1911–88) was a German theoretical physicist in exile who became a British citizen in 1939, and who spent time working on both the Manhattan Project in the Theoretical Physics Division at the Los Alamos Laboratory (he was present at the Trinity test in July 1945) and the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, England. He was first suspected of being a Russian spy in late 1949, and was convicted of espionage on 1 Mar. 1950 and sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment; and he ultimately made a full confession in January 1951. (After serving some nine years of his sentence, he was released in June 1959 and skedaddled to the German Democratic Republic, where he became a celebrated scientist.)

Groser, Fr St. John B., to be screen-tested,

4.GeorgeHoellering, George M.discovers Father Groser of Stepney;b8n Hoellering to TSE, 20 Apr. 1949: ‘AsGroser, Fr St. John B. you know I have searched for a long time to cast the part of the Archbishop for “Murder in the Cathedral”. I have seen many actors and found no one who genuinely look [sic] like an Archbishop. I then looked amongst non-actors, and at last I think I have found the right man. He is Father Groser of Stepney. I have spoken to him and he is already taking a great interest in the film. He has studied the script, and this morning I screened your recording for him for two hours.

Grumbar, J. C.,

7.J. C. GrumbarGrumbar, J. C., MBE., served on the council of the Fédération Britannique.

Gründgens, Gustaf, directs The Family Reunion, directs The Confidential Clerk,

11.GustafGründgens, Gustaf Gründgens (1899–1963): famous, and famously controversial, German actor and director. He played the part of ‘Der Schränker’ (‘The Safecracker’) in Fritz Lang’s film M (1931), and earned authority as artistic director of a series of major theatres in Berlin, Düsseldorf and Hamburg. During WW2 he somehow found favour with the Nazis, and served on the Presidential Council of the Reichskulturkammer (Reich Chamber of Culture); Hermann Göring even added his name to the Gottbegnadeten (Important Artist Exempt List). In 1960 he was to be celebrated for his portrayal of Mephistopheles, in Goethe’s Faust. Despite being a known homosexual, Gründgens was briefly married, 1926–7, to the actor and writer Erika Mann (1905–69) – daughter of the author Thomas Mann – who was later to arrange a marriage of convenience with W. H. Auden. In 1936, while living in exile in Amsterdam, Klaus Mann – Gründgens’ quondam brother-in-law – published the novel Mephisto, in which the figure of Hendrik Höfgen – whose career is depicted as one of corruption and compromise with the Nazis – is based on the career of Gründgens; this roman-à-clef was published for the first time in Germany in 1956; and in 1981 it was to be filmed by István Szabó, with Klaus Brandauer starring as Höfgen. See Andrea Weiss, In the Shadow of the Magic Mountain: The Erika and Klaus Mann Story (Chicago, 2010) and Lara Feigel, The Bitter Taste of Victory: Life, Love, and Art in the Ruins of the Reich (2016).

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.

Hayward, John, in TSE's thumbnail description, his condition and character, what TSE represents to, VHE complains about TSE to, TSE's new chess-playing neighbour, meets EH over tea, hosts TSE, GCF and de la Mare, on EH, on EH (to TSE), gives TSE cigars for Christmas, calls EH TSE's 'sister', and the Dobrées on Boxing Day, and TSE play a prank on guests, backstage at The Times, taken for walk, on Jenny de Margerie, Empson, TSE and Sansoms call on, evening with Spender, Jennings and, exchanges Christmas presents with TSE, exchanges rare books with TSE, sends luxuries to convalescent TSE, TSE's only regular acquaintance, dines with TSE and Camerons, lent Williams's Cranmer, accompanied to the Fabers' party, hosts discussion about Parisian Murder, inspects French translation of Murder, and TSE's Old Buffers' Dinner, gives TSE bath-mitts, given wine for Christmas, one of TSE's dependents, at Savile Club Murder dinner, Empson takes TSE on to see, possible housemate, in second line of play-readers, walked round Earl's Court, and Bradfield Greek play, and TSE drive to Tandys, and TSE give another party, corrects TSE's Anabase translation, watches television with TSE, Christmas Day with, introduced to Djuna Barnes, meets Christina Morley, walk round Brompton Cemetery with, Hyde Park excursion with, moving house, at his birthday-party, honoured at F&F, displaced to the Rothschilds, where TSE visits him, among TSE's closest friends, his conversation missed, the prospect of Christmas without, excursions to Cambridge to visit, 'my best critic', gives TSE American toilet-paper, helps TSE finish Little Gidding, possible post-war housemate, protector of TSE's literary remains, foreseeably at Merton Hall, discusses plays with TSE, flat-hunting with, and Carlyle Mansions, his furniture, installed at Carlyle Mansions, further handicapped without telephone, undermines TSE's aura of poetic facility, irritates except in small doses, helps with adjustment of TSE's OM medal, at the Brighton Cocktail Party, hounded by Time, quid pro quo with TSE, arranges first-night party for Cocktail Party, arranges Confidential Clerk cast dinner, and TSE's Selected Prose, and TSE entertained by Yehudi Menuhin,

11.JohnHayward, John Davy Hayward (1905–65), editor and critic: see Biographical Register.

Hoellering, George M., pitches for Murder film rights, TSE's fondness for, accompanies TSE on Canterbury recce, persists with TSE, encourages TSE over adaptation, sitting on TSE's scenario, commissioned to film Archbishop's enthronement, incommunicado, publicising Murder, on collaborating with TSE, tries to cast TSE as Becket, discovers Father Groser of Stepney, dressing set in disused church, peddling his Murder, and Murder's reception, Message from Canterbury,

3.GeorgeHoellering, George M. M. Hoellering (1898–1980), Austrian-born filmmaker and cinema manager: see Biographical Register.

'Letter from T. S. Eliot. To the Editor of Poetry, A',
'Message to Merkur',
Miller, Gilbert, possible force behind Murder's transfer, negotiating Cocktail Party's transfer, repels TSE, knows the wrong sort of duke, bumps into TSE in Spain,

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.

Murder in the Cathedral, idea for initially suggested by Laurence Irving, offered to Martin Browne, St. Thomas as TSE's muse, TSE on writing, tentatively, 'The Archbishop Murder Case', uncertainties over title, currently 'Fear in the Way', which proves unpopular, TSE on rewriting, title settled on, final revisions for printer, tentatively critiqued by EH, and EH on TSE as dramatist, chorus copied for EH, Virginia Woolf's aspersions on, the form of its choruses, defended from obscurity, did not test TSE's plotting, book-sales to-date, $1,000 offered for American rights, pays for 1936 American trip, Italian and Hungarian rights sold, and Whiggery, Savile Club dinner to celebrate, compared to next play, discrepancies of Canterbury Text, Martin Browne's initial response to, TSE recognised as author of, TSE on its cheerful title, EH on, abandoned Mercury Theatre premiere, suggested by Yeats and Doone, in the offing, and Doone's response to first draft, EH requested at, imperilled, text copied for Yeats, 1935 Canterbury Festival production, in rehearsal, opening night, reception, final performance, and EH's response, 1935–6 Mercury Theatre revival, Martin Browne pushing for, in rehearsal, which EH attends, compared to Canterbury original, at the box-office, its 100th performance, still running, proposed tour to end, 1936 BBC radio version, BBC bid to produce, broadcast fixed, BBC memo on, in rehearsal, TSE on, abortive 1936 New York transfer, Dukes visits America to arrange, blighted by Brace's actions, quashed by Federal Theatre production, its usurper founders, deferred to autumn, unsolicited 1936 New York production, licensed by Brace, to be directed by Rice, seemingly withdrawn, Rice resigns from, delights EH and Eleanor Hinkley, TSE sent press-cuttings for, EH reports on, TSE speculates as to textual discrepancies, attended by Eleanor Roosevelt, extended and potentially expanded, TSE to the Transcript on, may predispose immigration authorities favourably in future, royalties from, 1936 University College, Dublin student production, described by TSE, rumoured Australian and American productions, 1936 Gate Theatre touring production, TSE's long-held wish, scheduled, 1936 touring production, due at the Arts Theatre, Cambridge, as it was played in Cambridge, 1936 America pirate production, 1937 Duchess Theatre West End transfer, date fixed for, announced in Times, dress-rehearsal attended, reception, reviewed, royalties, still playing, ticket sales pick up, coming to an end, receives royal visit, 1937 touring production, scheduled post-Duchess, beginning in Leeds, then Manchester, going strong, 1937 Harvard University production, 1937 Amherst College production, singled out for praise, 1937 Old Vic production, touring production arrived at, in rehearsal, 1937 Tewkesbury Drama Festival production, 1938 American tour, projected for January 1937, said date seconded by Dukes, deferred to September 1937, confirmed again by Dukes, pre-tour dates in Golders Green, then Liverpool, opening in Boston in January, over which EH is consulted, tour itinerary, Family Reunion keeps TSE from, preparatory re-rehearsal for, pre-crossing Liverpool dates, EH's judgement desired, EH reports on first night, reviewed in The Times, EH sends New York cuttings, prematurely transferred to New York, Dukes reports on, Westminster Cathedral Hall charity performance, 1940 Latham Mercury revival, revival suggested in rep with Family Reunion, wartime modern-dress production suggested, ambushes TSE, in rehearsal, first night, reviewed, Browne's wartime Pilgrim Players' adaptation, Hoellering film, Hoellering's initial approach made, Hoellering's vision for, TSE adapting for screen, reconnoitre of Canterbury for, casting Becket, recording made for, development process described to NYT, non-actor found for Becket, screenings of Groser, set-dressing, screening, approaching release, still in the edit, final screening, and Venice Film Festival, seeking distribution, soon to premiere, opens, initial reception, circulating in shortened version, 1945 Théâtre du Vieux Colombier production, compared to Martin Browne's, royalties, apparently a hit, reviewed, reaches 150 performances, Fluchère's involvement, 1946 German production, 1947 Edinburgh Festival production, 1948 Milton Academy production, 1949 broadcast, 1949 Berlin production, politically resonant, 1952 University of Rennes, Grand Théâtre abridgment, 1952 Théatre National Populaire production, 1953 Old Vic revival, waiting on Donat, TSE on, 1954 Harvard production,
poetry, the danger of illustrating, versus the law, as career path, as social construct, as against didacticism, as redefined by Sweeney Agonistes, TSE on his oeurvre, TSE's own reasons for writing, TSE doubts his own, TSE's unrecorded epigram on, TSE on his own, and the importance of models, relieves TSE's longing for EH, nonsense poetry, versus drama, and TSE's new drawing-desk, and theatre-going audiences, and the dissimulation of feeling, TSE on writing after long intermission, jealousy among poets, and personal experience, TSE's defended from EH's charge of 'futility', and emotion, and marriage to VHE, and varieties of audience,
'Preface' (to English Poetry and its Contribution to the Knowledge of a Creative Principle),
'Preface' (to Thoughts for Meditation),
St. Stephen's Church, Gloucester Road, EH encouraged to visit, vestry goings-on, churchwarding at, Christmas at, receives TSE's BBC fee, two days' continuous prayer at, Christmas without, Lent without, wartime Easter at, in wartime, wartime Holy Week, TSE reduced to Sundays at, fundraising for,
Shapiro, Karl,

5.‘A Letter from T. S. Eliot. To the Editor of Poetry’, Poetry 76 (May 1950), 88: CProse 7, 473–4. KarlShapiro, Karl Shapiro (1913–2000), poet and critic, a graduate of the University of Virginia and Johns Hopkins University, served in the US Army through the war, was editor of Poetry, 1948–50. He was an opponent of the decision by the Bollingen Prize committee to make the award to EP for Pisan Cantos (1949). He taught English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 1956–66, and edited Prairie Schooner; and he served a term as Poetry Consultant at the Library of Congress. His works in poetry include Person, Place, and Thing (1942); V Letter and Other Poems (1945) and Poems of a Jew (1950); and he won prizes and awards including the Levison Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Shelley Memorial Prize.

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.

Strachey, John,
see also Stracheys, the

9.JohnStrachey, John Strachey (1901–1963) – son of John Strachey, editor of the Spectator – was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and went on to edit the Socialist Review, having joined the Labour Party in 1923. He was MP for Birmingham Aston, 1929–31, and was for a while a member of Sir Oswald Mosley’s New Party before joining the Communist Party from the later 1930s. He was Labour MP for Dundee (later Dundee West), 1945–63, serving as Minister for Food in 1946 (when he was made a Privy Counsellor) and Secretary of State for War, 1950–1. A Marxist-Leninist theorist of repute in the 1930s, he wrote The Coming Struggle for Power (1932) and The Menace of Fascism (1933). His former communism was criticised during the Fuchs affair.

Time, hounds JDH and Cheetham, TSE learns of Cocktail Party royalties in,
Twain, Mark, and belonging to the International Mark Twain Society, TSE's unfulfilled introduction to,
University of Chicago, invites TSE to lecture, 'The Aims of Education' being prepared for, TSE's sojourn at,