[35A School St., Andover, Mass.]
To-day is the third day of exceptional fog on London: no buses, silence in the street, and a dirty smoky fog that penetrates into the house so successfully that the end of the corridor looks dim. I feel filthy inside and out, and haven’t been out of doors. I hope for a change tomorrow: but if there are no buses running by then I shall certainly stay at home and cancel my engagements. The milk is still delivered, and we have, thanks to American kindness and madame’s foresight, canned goods to live on.
IGeorge, Ruth;a5 am glad to have Miss George’s address, and will write to her. IPerkins, Edith (EH's aunt);m1 wrote to Aunt Edith last week, but will try to write again before Christmas, as well as the Christmas cable which is really intended for yourself. HerLavorgna, Elvira Giovanna;a2 last letter, written by Miss Lavorgna at the end of August, puzzled me, because she asked me to write on white paper and wider spacing. Can she actually read a letter herself? I had assumed that she would have to have a letter read to her: and naturally, a letter which one expects to [be] read aloud to the recipient, is a little different from one to read to herself. It seems to me that her vision must be a little better than I thought, if she can manage at night all by herself. I still don’t see how she does it.
IConfidential Clerk, Thewhich TSE rewrites;a6 have re-written, and I think vastly improved, the first two acts of my play, andBrowne, Elliott Martin1953 Edinburgh Confidential Clerk;f9receives first two acts;a1 they have just gone off to Martin, toHunter, Ian (impresario)receives The Confidential Clerk;a4 study himself and to show to Ian Hunter of Edinburgh. But in improving these acts I have made the solution of my situation in Act III all the more difficult; and in re-writing that, I am at the moment stuck: The plot is so involved that there are at least three solutions or three ‘reconciliations’ necessary in Act III – and I see no escape from what producers’ won’t like: the introduction in the second part of the act of a character previously mentioned but never seen or heard.
IHoellering, George M.peddling his Murder;c1 hear from Hoellering thatMurder in the CathedralHoellering film;g1circulating in shortened version;c4 his shortened (and much improved) version of his Murder film had a good reception in Glasgow, so I hope he will be able to put it on circuit here and in America, bypassing London and New York. I confess that I have lost all interest in it myself, but I don’t want him to lose money by it. I was gratified to have your support over the suggestion of three plays in repertory; andFamily Reunion, The1953 New York production vetoed;j9;a1 I have also vetoed a suggestion from New York for putting on ‘The Family Reunion’ commercially. I don’t want that to be done until I have tried out a new play.
Your play was done last night.1 I do hope that your girls did you credit. I am glad that it is over; but even so I imagine that you have to live in a bustle of forced activities until Christmas. I am glad that you will get to New Bedford. (NothingElsmith, Dorothy Olcott;d2 from Dorothy Elsmith except a sort of Christmas card from which it appears that she is travelling in the South until next May!).
Wheretravels, trips and plansTSE's 1953 visit to St. Louis and America;i1set for June;a1 do you expect to be, towards the end of June? I have to be in St. Louis on the 9th, and I am writing to find out whether I should make that the end of my visit, or the middle – it seems simpler that I should dash through New York straight to St. Louis and then take a fortnight in Cambridge, and only spend one night in New York at each end. The only advantage of coming to Cambridge after the middle of June, is that some of the people I should otherwise have to see there, will have gone, and I shall have more time for my sisters and those who are left.
1.TSE to Edith Perkins, 2 Dec. 1952: ‘I was glad that Emily’s tour of the West was so satisfactory, and relieved when she had completed her air travel. She tells me she is now, as usual, in the midst of preparation for the seasonal Play, and no doubt will be very tired when Christmas comes. That is one among other drawbacks to teaching, that it inevitably means her starting the vacations in a state of great fatigue.’
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.
4.TSEElsmiths, theseminal Woods Hole stay with;a1Elsmith, Dorothy Olcott
2.RuthGeorge, Ruth George (1880–1959), Associate Professor of English, Scripps College, Claremont, California, had become a close friend of EH at Scripps in 1932–4. EH was to donate thirty-two inscribed books to Scripps; five inscribed items to Princeton University Library.
3.GeorgeHoellering, George M. M. Hoellering (1898–1980), Austrian-born filmmaker and cinema manager: see Biographical Register.
2.IanHunter, Ian (impresario) Hunter, MBE (1919–2003), British festival director, impresario, talent manager, succeeded Rudolf Bing as artistic director of the Edinburgh Festival, 1950–5. He pursued his success in that capacity with others including the Bath Festival (from 1948), City of London Festival (from 1962), Brighton Festival (1967–83), Windsor Festival (1969–72), Hong Kong Festival (1973–5), and a one-off Commonwealth Arts Festival (1965). In addition, he was chairman of the artists’ agency Harold Holt Ltd, 1953–88. Knighted in 1983. As a guest on the BBC radio programme Desert Island Discs, his choice of book was the complete works of T. S. Eliot.
1.ElviraLavorgna, Elvira Giovanna Giovanna Lavorgna (a devout Christian) was for some while a nurse-companion to Edith Perkins. ‘Mrs Perkins and Miss Hale both dislike my name Elvira – and worse, my nickname, Vee,’ as she was to tell TSE on 5 July 1953. ‘I don’t mind and I like having them use Giovanna! I would have taken it as my name in religion.’