[Apt. 17, 90 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, Mass.]

T. S.Eliot
EmilyHale
TS
19 Carlyle Mansions
23 June 1951
Dearest Emily,

I shall put at the beginning something that belongs at the end; but I forgot it at the end of my last letter, and I don’t want to forget it again: didFamily Reunion, The;j7 the Family Reunion for your pupil arrive in time for the 4th June? I posted it (or rather, inscribed it and commanded it to be mailed) directly I got from you her name; and as I thought the ordinary mail might miss the date, I ordered it to be sent by airmail which should have given plenty of time. If it did not come, or if it was sent by ordinary mail, please let me know.

I hope that you are beginning to rest after your immense labours (you seem to have become a dress designer as well as producer) but Commonwealth Avenue is hardly restful. I wish that you could have had three weeks at the seaside first, and then a shorter visit; butFoss, Mary;a6 I hope that your time with Mary Foss will be satisfactory. (You say nothing more about your plans for next year, and I should suppose that the decision had to be made by now).

I have not much to report of myself: I believe I am very well on the whole. I have to report to the surgeon again in three weeks time – sometimes a minor operation can take a long time to heal completely, but I am quite comfortable. Various duties have interfered with my own work. I anticipate no public occasions now until the autumn: my'Value and Use of Cathedrals in England To-day, The';a2 last was aDuncan-Jones, Revd Arthur Stuart, Dean of Chichester;a9 visit to Chichester to oblige the Dean (I declined last year) by speaking at the Annual Meeting of the Friends of the Cathedral on ‘the value and use of a cathedral’ from a layman’s point of view. NextRichmonds, theTSE's Netherhampton weekends with;a7 weekend I spend with the Richmonds’, andFabers, the1951 Minsted summer stay;i4 on August 3d I go to the Fabers’ for ten days. I want to find lodgings in a farmhouse not too far from London, to which I can go at any time on a few days notice, for a week or more at a time, in order to work without outside duties; andFaber, Enid Eleanorhome-hunting for TSE in Sussex;c8 Enid Faber is pursuing enquiries in Sussex. In London one is constantly exposed to unexpected foreign visitors as well as to the inhabitants: onGasset, José Ortega y;a1 Monday I must go to a lunch for Ortega y Gasset. He is an important Spanish author; he contributed to the Criterion and I used to have some correspondence with him; and as I am here it would be an international incivility not to be there.1

ThenGangulee, Dr Nagendranathpreface for;a1 therePieper, JosefTSE's preface for;a3 areWeil, SimoneTSE's preface for;a1 thePound, EzraTSE writes introduction for;e2 thingsChiari, Josephpreface for;a2 which onePound, EzraThe Literary Essays of Ezra Pound;e7 hasChiari, JosephContemporary French Poetry;a4 to do for other people, which however cannot be escaped by retiring to the country. Prefaces'Preface' (to Thoughts for Meditation);a2 and'Preface' (to Leisure the Basis of Culture);a1 introductions'Preface' (to The Need for Roots);a1: Gangulee,2 Pieper,3 Simone Weil,4 Ezra Pound,5 a struggling Corsican at Manchester University,6 HenriFluchère, HenriShakespeare;b6 FluchèreFluchère, Henripromised foreword by TSE;b3 who has a claim upon me because he translates my plays, got Murder in the Cathedral produced in Paris, got me a degree from Aix and the Legion of Honour – I can’t refuse him and I am rather fond of him; and a translation of his ‘Shakespeare’ is to be published in England.7 I have bought two new hats to improve my morale as yours by the cut and permanent wave (if you are pleased with it, that is the occasion for a new photograph[)]. AndElsmith, Dorothy Olcott;c7 now I am writing to Dorothy Elsmith to explain that I misread the date of her birthday. So she had not heard from me on the occasion when you were there.

With much love
Tom.

GivePerkins, Edith (EH's aunt);k5 my love to Aunt Edith.

1.JoséGasset, José Ortega y Ortega y Gasset (1883–1955): Spanish liberal philosopher and essayist, educated in Spain and Germany, was appointed (in 1910) Professor of Metaphysics at the Complutense University of Madrid. In 1917 he began contributing to El Sol; and in 1923 founded Revista de Occidente, which he directed until 1936. For ten years from the outbreak of the Civil War he exiled himself in Argentina and Portugal; but in 1948 he returned to Madrid where he founded the Institute of Humanities. Works include España invertebrada (Invertebrate Spain, 1921) and La rebellion de las mases (The Revolt of the Masses, 1930), which TSE called a ‘remarkable book’ (Leslie Paul, ‘A Conversation with T. S. Eliot’, Kenyon Review 27 [1965], 14).

2.ThoughtsGangulee, Dr Nagendranathblurb for;a2n for Meditation: A Way to Recovery from Within, anthology ed. N. Gangulee, with a preface by TSE (F&F, 1951), carried this blurb by TSE: ‘The compiler of this anthology is already known by his previous collection, The Testament of Immortality. Thoughts for Meditation is an anthology of a somewhat different kind. These are passages from great masters of the spiritual life, both in the Western (Christian) and in the Eastern world. Dr N. Gangulee is a man of deep spirituality, and of wide knowledge of the literature of devotion of Europe and Asia, who has given special attention to those moments of insight at which the Christian, the Brahmin, the Buddhist and the Moslem apprehend the same reality. Thus a passage from the New Testament, or from Thomas à Kempis or Pascal, may be juxtaposed with one from the Nikayas or the Upanishads or from some Súfi mystic, in complete concord.

‘The anthologist takes his title, Thoughts for Meditation, seriously. He wants his readers to meditate on what they read – a point upon which Mr Eliot insists in his preface. The word meditation frightens many people, as representing an arduous and possibly fruitless occupation of a few specialists: but Dr N. Gangulee means to tell us that the form of meditation for which his book is intended to provide the means, is something that everyone can practise, and something by which everyone can benefit.’

DrGangulee, Dr Nagendranath Nagendranath Gangulee (1889–1954) – agricultural scientist, author, anthologist – was son-in-law of Rabindranath Tagore. After teaching agriculture and rural economics at the University of Calcutta, he settled from 1932 in London, where he obtained a doctorate in soil biology from the University of London. He published on Indian agriculture and politics, and on religion and literature. Vera Brittain found him a ‘vital, intelligent man’ (Search after Sunrise [1951], 172).

3.TSE’sPieper, JosefLeisure the Basis of Culture;a4n blurb for Josef Pieper, Leisure the Basis of Culture, trans. Alick Dru (F&F, 1952): ‘At a time when it has seemed, in English-speaking countries, that philosophy, reduced to the examination of the meaning of language, was in danger of perishing in the desert of positivism, we must welcome a new voice speaking with ancient wisdom. The writings of Josef Pieper are remarkable, in both form and content. They are essays, brief, concentrated, and lucid. They are written, not in technical jargon, but in the common language of educated men. On the other hand, they do not aim to offer “philosophy for the million”; they demand the close attention of the serious mind.

‘Josef Pieper was born in 1904. In the Gynmasium [sic] Paulinum of Muenster he familiarized himself with the Greek classics, and with the writings of Thomas Aquinas. In the universities of Berlin and Muenster he continued his studies of philosophy, together with jurisprudence and sociology. From 1932 until 1946 he held no academic post; in the latter year he was named Professor in the Paedagogische Akademie of Essen, and Reader in the University of Muenster, in his native region.

‘The two essays here joined have been chosen as the best introduction to the work of a writer who will take his place as one of the most important philosophers of our time. While they fall strictly within the category of “philosophy”, they have a sociological, cultural and political bearing which gives them an importance for a much wider public than that which is concerned only with technical logomachy.’

4.‘PrefaceWeil, Simone to The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties towards Mankind, by Simone Weil; trans. Arthur Wills (1952): CProse 7, 662–70. Simone Weil (1909–43) was a French philosopher, secondary school teacher, political activist (she was for a time a Marxist, pacifist and trade unionist, and she fought on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War and for the French Resistance under Charles de Gaulle in London), and idealistic mystic. Her influential works include La Pesanteur et la Grâce (1947); Oppression et liberté (1955). TSE to Herbert Read, 21 Mar. 1951: ‘a preface or introduction to a book by Simone is about the most serious job of the kind that one could undertake. One is so impressed by this terrifying woman that one wants to do something that at least would not risk her disapproval of it.’

5.Literary Essays of Ezra Pound, ed. with an introduction by TSE (1954): CProse 8, 3–10.

6.Joseph Chiari, Contemporary French Poetry, with a preface by TSE (1952): CProse 7, 711–16.

7.Henri Fluchère, Shakespeare, with foreword by TSE (1953): CProse 7, 782–5. Fluchère’s translation, Meurtre dans la cathédrale, had appeared in 1943.

Chiari, Joseph, and TSE's Borders motor-tour, preface for, Contemporary French Poetry,

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).

Duncan-Jones, Revd Arthur Stuart, Dean of Chichester, to lunch with EH, member of All Souls Club, where he speaks on adult baptism, leads discussion on church music, attacks government, with TSE over South Indian Church, dies, TSE's memorial on,

7.RevdDuncan-Jones, Revd Arthur Stuart, Dean of Chichester Arthur Stuart Duncan-Jones (1879–1955) held various incumbencies, including St Paul’s, Knightsbridge, London, before becoming Dean of Chichester, 1929–55.

Elsmith, Dorothy Olcott, issues invitation to Woods Hole, TSE and EH to stay with, now living in Boston, invites TSE again to Woods Hole, thanked for hospitality, on TSE as nurse, attends Kind Lady, reports on Kind Lady, in New Zealand, taken to dinner at Garrick, EH in Grand Manan with, EH visits during Christmas holidays, present when EH learns of TSE's death,
see also Elsmiths, the

4.TSEElsmiths, theseminal Woods Hole stay with;a1Elsmith, Dorothy OlcottElsmiths, the andAmericaWoods Hole, Falmouth, Massachusetts;i2TSE and EH's holiday in recalled;a2St. LouisAmericaBostonAmericaCaliforniaAmericaCambridge, MassachusettsAmericaHollywoodAmericaNew EnglandAmericaNew YorkAmerica EHElsmith, Dorothy Olcott were going to visit a friend of EH’s named Dorothy Olcott Elsmith (a graduate of Smith College), who lived with her family in a white clapboard house by the seaside at Woods Hole, Falmouth, Mass.: see Biographical Register.

Faber, Enid Eleanor, TSE mistakes her parentage, and the Eliots' separation, and the Irish waiter, as tennis-player, suggests Murder tickets for F&F employees, presses TSE into public speaking, and sons at zoo, cousin of Rab Butler, and Ann share TSE's box, congratulates TSE on opening night, TSE dependent on for food, at VHE's funeral, on VHE's death and funeral, home-hunting for TSE in Sussex, now Lady Faber,
see also Fabers, the

1.TSE was mistaken here. EnidFaber, Enid Eleanor Eleanor Faber (1901–95) was the daughter of Sir Henry Erle Richards (1861–1922), Fellow of All Souls College and Chichele Professor of International Law and Diplomacy at Oxford University, and Mary Isabel Butler (1868–1945).

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,
Fluchère, Henri, mourns The Criterion, his translation of Murder, TSE takes to, translating Aix lecture, lectures on Apollinaire, as TSE's companion in Aix, TSE's debt to, promised foreword by TSE, on Cocktail Party in Paris, hosts TSE in France, Shakespeare,
Foss, Mary, EH's holidays with, lunched at the Connaught,

1.MaryFoss, Mary Foss was an old friend of EH: they were contemporaries at Miss Porter’s School, Farmington, CT, where they acted in plays and were members of a Shakespeare club. EH would often visit the Fosses at their home in Concord, and she taught the daughter, Sally Foss, while at Concord Academy.

Gangulee, Dr Nagendranath, preface for, blurb for,

DrGangulee, Dr Nagendranath Nagendranath Gangulee (1889–1954) – agricultural scientist, author, anthologist – was son-in-law of Rabindranath Tagore. After teaching agriculture and rural economics at the University of Calcutta, he settled from 1932 in London, where he obtained a doctorate in soil biology from the University of London. He published on Indian agriculture and politics, and on religion and literature. Vera Brittain found him a ‘vital, intelligent man’ (Search after Sunrise [1951], 172).

Gasset, José Ortega y,

1.JoséGasset, José Ortega y Ortega y Gasset (1883–1955): Spanish liberal philosopher and essayist, educated in Spain and Germany, was appointed (in 1910) Professor of Metaphysics at the Complutense University of Madrid. In 1917 he began contributing to El Sol; and in 1923 founded Revista de Occidente, which he directed until 1936. For ten years from the outbreak of the Civil War he exiled himself in Argentina and Portugal; but in 1948 he returned to Madrid where he founded the Institute of Humanities. Works include España invertebrada (Invertebrate Spain, 1921) and La rebellion de las mases (The Revolt of the Masses, 1930), which TSE called a ‘remarkable book’ (Leslie Paul, ‘A Conversation with T. S. Eliot’, Kenyon Review 27 [1965], 14).

Perkins, Edith (EH's aunt), her relationship to EH queried, to accompany EH to Scripps, asks TSE to dinner, at first Norton lecture, shares pew with TSE, accompanies TSE to Symphony Concert, in audience at Milton Academy, catches cold in Florence, in TSE's private opinion, TSE's occasional poem for, her relationship with EH analysed, dislikes Jeanette McPherrin, explains EH's breakdown to TSE, on the Harvard Murder, as Campden hostess, and TSE's wartime instructions to EH, gives lunch at American Women's Club, gives TSE balsam pillow, requests English edition of Cats, as horticulturalist, without Campden garden, compared to Irene Hale, gives TSE photograph of EH, attends Ada's funeral, reports on EH's Millbrook situation, pressed for ham and pineapple recipe, sight affected in one eye, gives lecture, sight failing, sight deteriorates in other eye, thanked for 1946 hospitality, gives to Books Across the Sea, according to EH, asks TSE to present slides to RHS, which TSE does, on EH and TSE's relationship, and Hidcote House, friendly with Marion, TSE pitches her book to publishers, depressed by the heat, somewhat recovered, approaching 80th, faced with husband's death, letter of condolence to, sent birthday poem, visited in Boston, has sciatica, reports on EH's dramatic activities, Miss Lavorgna on, in her old-age infirmity, suffers 'shock', sacks nurse, EH preserved from, sends funeral tribute to Cousin Will, and the Hale letters, nursing home sought for, moved into nursing home, where TSE writes to her, suffers stroke, deteriorating, relations with EH, her legacy to EH,
see also Perkinses, the
Pieper, Josef, and family charm TSE, TSE's preface for, Leisure the Basis of Culture,

6.JosefPieper, Josef Pieper (1904–97): German Catholic philosopher influenced by Thomas Aquinas, Professor of Philosophical Anthropology at the University of Münster, 1950–76. His noted publications include Leisure, the Basis of Culture, trans. Alexander Dru, with introduction by TSE (F&F, 1952); The End of Time: A Meditation on the Philosophy of History, trans. Michael Bullock (1954); and The Silence of St Thomas, trans. Daniel O’Connor (F&F, 1957).

Pound, Ezra, within Hulme's circle, at The Egoist, indebted to Harriet Weaver, epistolary style, on President Lowell, TSE recites for Boston audience, distinguished from Joyce and Lawrence, TSE's reasons for disliking, attacks After Strange Gods, as correspondent, needs pacification, and TSE's possible visit to Rapallo, recommended to NEW editorial committee, anecdotalised by Jane Heap, of TSE and David Jones's generation, his strange gift to Joyce recalled, delicacies of his ego, Morley halves burden of, lacks religion, his letters from Italy censored, one of TSE's 'group', indicted for treason, TSE on his indictment, his legal situation, correspondence between TSE and Bernard Shaw concerning, visited by TSE in Washington, defended by TSE in Poetry, Osbert Sitwell on, his treatment in hospital protested, his insanity, TSE's BBC broadcast on, The Pisan Cantos, TSE writes introduction for, TSE chairs evening devoted to, further efforts on behalf of, Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, The Literary Essays of Ezra Pound, 'The Seafarer',
see also Pounds, the

3.Ezra PoundPound, Ezra (1885–1972), American poet and critic: see Biographical Register.

'Preface' (to Leisure the Basis of Culture),
'Preface' (to The Need for Roots),
'Preface' (to Thoughts for Meditation),
Richmonds, the, TSE's new South Kensington neighbours, TSE's alcholic weekend with, host TSE in Sussex, TSE's Netherhampton weekends with, make their home over to maternity hospital,
'Value and Use of Cathedrals in England To-day, The',
Weil, Simone, TSE's preface for, TSE on,

4.‘PrefaceWeil, Simone to The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties towards Mankind, by Simone Weil; trans. Arthur Wills (1952): CProse 7, 662–70. Simone Weil (1909–43) was a French philosopher, secondary school teacher, political activist (she was for a time a Marxist, pacifist and trade unionist, and she fought on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War and for the French Resistance under Charles de Gaulle in London), and idealistic mystic. Her influential works include La Pesanteur et la Grâce (1947); Oppression et liberté (1955). TSE to Herbert Read, 21 Mar. 1951: ‘a preface or introduction to a book by Simone is about the most serious job of the kind that one could undertake. One is so impressed by this terrifying woman that one wants to do something that at least would not risk her disapproval of it.’