[35A School St., Andover, Mass.]
I was glad to get your note – I might almost say scrawl – of January 31 – andAmericaFarmington, Connecticut;e5;a5 I hope that you had a happy weekend at Farmington, though not, I should thing [sic], a very restful one, if you had to give a talk. IHale, Emilywritings;x4'The Giocanda Smile';b2 was much impressed by your article in ‘The Concord Journal’: you are really a most accomplished dramatic critic!1 IHuxley, Aldousas playwright;b6 don’t know the play – IHuxley, AldousThe World of Light;b9;a6 did see one play by Aldous Huxley;2 but I don’t care for his books, and it seems to me, from what I have read or seen, that he does not love his characters – and so they are largely intellectual constructions rather than human beings. But I should think that any play of his would be most difficult to produce and act, especially for amateurs. AsHobson, Harold;a1 for the note by Harold Hobson,3 I have seen that before! Hobson rang me up to express his regret at having been misinformed: ofSherek, Henry;b2 course his misinformation came straight from Sherek. I dislike the vulgarity of the time table: play on hand at 9.55; accepted by 11.35.
IConfidential Clerk, TheEVE typing up;a9 have justEliot, Esmé Valerie (née Fletcher, TSE's second wife)types up The Confidential Clerk;a8 got another draft of Act III ready for my secretary’s typing. When I have it complete in such form that no drastic alterations are likely, and can get extra copies typed, I shall send you one for your approval.
MyEpstein, Jacobgood company;b2 time has been very crowded lately, what with Epstein one morning a week (but he is very agreeable company) and Mrs. Conrad Aiken once a week for three weeks: Epstein says the last sitting will be that of next Monday; andAiken, Mary Hooverwhich he does;a2 as for Mrs. Aiken, I shall give her one more hour.4 Needless to say, I find the Epstein bust the more interesting production of the two.5
Wheretravels, trips and plansTSE's 1953 visit to St. Louis and America;i1to include fortnight in Cambridge;a4 will you be in the middle of June? I think I have already said that I should probably go straight to St. Louis, and return for a fortnight in Cambridge about the 14th or 15th of June.
The floods did not affect Chelsea.6 The damage and loss of life and suffering have been appalling; but far worse in Holland than with us.
IPerkins, Edith (EH's aunt)has sciatica;m2 am very sorry to hear of Aunt Edith’s sciatica, especially as I should imagine that she would be a difficult invalid. Sciatica can go on for a long time: people are sometimes comfortable in bed but in agony as soon as they stand up. Has she thought of having a chiropractor? A friend of mine here, a Frenchman, was restored from a bad attack by manipulation – though the process, he said, was very painful in itself. Oh dear, I don’t know how you deal with all this, and keep going, in the midst of your academic duties.
1.E.H., ‘The Gioconda Smile’, The Concord Journal XXVI (18 Dec. 1952), 1, 8: see Appendix.
2.The World of Light: A Comedy in Three Acts: see TSE’s letter to EH, 1 May 1931.
3.HaroldHobson, Harold Hobson (1904–92), drama critic for the Sunday Times and other publications. Knighted 1977.
4.See Conrad Aiken, ‘A Portrait of T. S. Eliot’, Life (1965), 115–17.
5.TSEEpstein, Jacobgood company;b2 (who conceived ‘a great liking’ for Epstein) wrote to Christina Andreae, 11 Feb. 1953: ‘The bust of Epstein is very like me, but seems to suggest unpleasant traits of which I was unaware!’ For a full account of TSE’s relationship with Epstein, see Matthew Geary, ‘Object in Focus: The “Agèd Eagle” – Jacob Epstein, T. S. Eliot (1952)’, University of Birmingham MAP issue 2: < https://www.birmingham.ac.uk>projects>map>issue2>.
6.The worst North Sea storm of the twentieth century occurred on Sat. 31 Jan. 1953 and into the Sunday. An enormous tidal surge devastated sea defences along the eastern coast of England and Scotland: the most severe damage occurred in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Sussex, Essex and Kent; Canvey Island in the Thames Estuary was also badly damaged. 307 people were killed, and 40,500 made homeless. Belgium and the Netherlands likewise incurred appalling breaches of sea defences and widespread floods.
4.MaryAiken, Mary Hoover Hoover Aiken, his third wife.
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.
1.JacobEpstein, Jacob Epstein (1880–1959), American sculptor championed by Ezra Pound and Wyndham Lewis; naturalised British subject from 1907. He designed the tomb of Oscar Wilde in Père Lachaise, and his Rock-Drill was sculpted during his Vorticist period.
3.HaroldHobson, Harold Hobson (1904–92), drama critic for the Sunday Times and other publications. Knighted 1977.
10.AldousHuxley, Aldous Huxley (1894–1963), novelist, poet, essayist: see Biographical Register.
4.HenrySherek, Henry Sherek (1900–1967), theatre producer: see Biographical Register.