[35A School St., Andover, Mass.]
I think your letter of October 11 must have crossed one of mine – a letter in two envelopes. I ought to have written much sooner. I was indeed aware of receiving no birthday greeting, and feared that it might mean illness or distracting worries: and it was evidently both. I was very sorry to learn the double cause – thePerkins, Edith (EH's aunt);m6 teeth and your aunt’s relieving her pent up woes at your expense. WhatHearsey, Dr Marguerite Capen;a4 a beginning for a busy term with Miss Hersey [sc. Hearsey]! And now I suppose you are immersed in a Christmas play, under all the usual handicaps – I hope, that you are again producing with a cast of both sexes, as that is so much more interesting.
Although I have been a bad correspondent, I have at least written once to Aunt Edith – andLavorgna, Elvira Giovanna;a3 to Miss Lavorgna.1 TheConfidential Clerk, The1953 Lyric Theatre production;b3full house;a2 play still goes on to a full house: indeedElizabeth II, Queen (formerly Princess Elizabeth of York)apparently enjoys The Confidential Clerk;a6 theMargaret, Princessattends The Confidential Clerk;a2 Queen and Princess Margaret went privately the other night (it being unofficial, her party occupied the front row of the Dress Circle, and also, I was not summoned; so I knew nothing of it till afterwards). I hear indirectly, through somebody who knew a member of the party, that the Queen liked it very much – though I should be curious to know whether she thought it was a gay farce, as the posters describe it. IBrowne, Elliott Martin1953 Lyric Theatre Confidential Clerk;g1attends with TSE;a1 have been once with Martin, and made my round of all the cast in their dressing rooms afterwards. Some of them, of course, had begun overplaying for laughs, and I trust that Martin admonished them afterwards; MargaretLeighton, Margaretin The Confidential Clerk;a3 Leighton ranting a bit too long in the second act – in response to pressure from her to know what I thought, I told her she was keeping onto the top note a bit too long, which she took very well. They are all nice people to deal with, so far as what I see of them. MartinConfidential Clerk, The1954 American production;b4schedule for;a2 is going over to New York shortly, to rehearse an American company that Sherek is getting together there. DoClaire, Ina;a1 you know Ina Clare [sc. Claire]?2 They open in January in New Haven, then go to BOSTON for three weeks before opening in New York, whereSherek, HenryAmerican Confidential Clerk production;b3 Henry says he has got a very good theatre. Meanwhile I have sent the text to the printers, and hope to correct proof before the end of the year. I'Three Voices of Poetry, The''slight';a2 have been toiling on my National Book League lecture – a slight affair, but having to write a public lecture after such a hard year seemed the last straw: and that comes off this week. Atravels, trips and plansTSE's 1953–4 trip to South Africa;i4;a2 week ago, I had my usual bronchitis for a week; but I think that now I shall be able to hold out until I sail for Durban.
I should like publicity and fame if it only concerned itself with what I write, and did not provoke interest in me as a person, which is odious. One must put up with the press repeating that I have made ‘a fortune’ out of plays and poetry (and with the consequent appeals from begging-letter writers) – but the people who think that they have a right to know everything about one’s private life! and the people who think that one ought to be always available for inspection, like a beast at the Zoo. All this is horrid. The net effect of notoriety of this kind is to make one feel very isolated, very tired, and very distrustful of people’s motives. The last, one has to try to combat. But I don’t think it has ever made me take a different view of myself. One never feels ‘distinguished’ or ‘eminent’: but one notices that other people in public life, who might otherwise have seemed to one to be exalted, merely seem less distinguished. They become pathetic, uncertain of themselves, and frail. And the ones who accept themselves at the public valuation, seem hollow. (IChurchill, Sir Winston Leonard Spenceras public figure;b4 wonder how real a person Winston Churchill is, apart from his public role! It was certainly silly of the Swedes to give him the prize for literature).3 So I hope I shan’t lose ‘the real me’. I don’t feel myself to be any different from the person I was before, indeed from the child of early photographs.
AndPound, Ezrafurther efforts on behalf of;e4 then there are so many people to whom one is either a myth or an omnipotent being: and that a word from me will always get jobs for the needy, support for good causes, and get Ezra Pound out of prison.
I’ve been running on all about myself – but a sentence in your letter provoked this outburst. I want so much to hear from you before Christmas – a letter that I shall be able to answer before I leave.
AndConfidential Clerk, The1954 American production;b4EH encouraged to report on;a3 I depend upon you to see the C.C. [The Confidential Clerk] in Boston, and tell me what you think of the cast in comparison to that you saw.
1.EarlyLavorgna, Elvira Giovannaon the Perkinses;a4n in 1953, ElviraPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle)Miss Lavorgna on;j6n Giovanna LavorgnaPerkins, Edith (EH's aunt)Miss Lavorgna on;m7n – Edith Perkins’ long-suffering former nurse-companion, and herself a devout Christian – had resigned her position when she could no longer bear ‘submitting to petty, grinding tyrannies under Mrs Perkins’s roof’, as she told TSE. However, she still cared about Edith Perkins, and would call on her at regular intervals at her apartment at 90 Commonwealth Avene, Boston.
During TSE’s visit over the summer, he had enjoyed meeting Lavorgna again over lunch one day. Lavorgna subsequently wrote to him, on 6 July 1953: ‘It was a joy to see you looking so well and I am very grateful to Mrs Perkins for having invited me to luncheon in your honor. I realize how much it means to her to have your visit and it was generous to include me. I was pleased to find Mrs Perkins in such good cheer that day, because earlier in the week, on one of my visits, I was dismayed to find her in a state of despondency for any number of reasons – but especially, that you regretted my absence from #90. I was hard put to dissipate her melancholy …
‘I am full of commiseration for Mrs Perkins’s plight. I realize how much it meant to her to have me with her … Miss Hale was forever beseeching me not to spoil her aunt in the event I could no longer be there. But there was little I could do about it. Mrs Perkins set the tone and I bent over backward to keep peace.
‘I am glad that I was able to be with Mrs Perkins for the two years and a half when she had to make an adjustment that was and still is so difficult. It was a great satisfaction to hear her say, “We should emerge better from our reading.” I found myself growing very close in spirit with Dr Perkins. Though I had never met him, I felt I knew him almost as well as his friends. During his last illness, he kept repeating over and over again, “I have perfect faith.” What an admirable example of patience in adversity! … I like to think that from his sphere in paradise, he is still looking out for his precious Edith, and approved of my presence in his earthly home.’
LavorgnaEliot, Theresa Garrett (TSE's sister-in-law);g6n reported too, in closing her long letter: ‘I had such a pleasant visit with Mrs [Theresa] Eliot on Friday … I spent a few hours with Mrs Perkins and Miss Hale, then telephoned Mrs Eliot and we arranged to go out to supper together…
‘I was quite touched to have her ask me to pray for you – she has such a protective, sisterly feeling for you. I told her I had been doing so for a long time now. I like to think of you as a spiritual godfather along with my favorite saints. Might I beg the privilege of having my intention remembered in your prayers. La ringrazio con tutto cuore [I thank you with all my heart]’.
TSE’s reply to Elvira Lavorgna, written on 8 Nov. 1953, has not been found.
She responded to him on 24 Nov. 1953: ‘While I was reciting my prayers last night, I was pleased to discover that the Church celebrates the feast of St John of the Cross today and I thought I must not let another day go by with your kind letter of the 8th unanswered. I shrink at the thought of encroaching upon your precious time – I well understand the “many just claims” made upon it. I was sincere when I told you two years ago that I did not expect an answer. Please forgive me for lamenting my lot … I beg for your prayers because your prayers are so eloquent – God must bend down ever so carefully to listen when you speak.
‘I have weighed your advice in regard to suffering. When I wrote, “In tormento e travaglia servire I Fratelli” – I simply meant that the pattern of my life has followed that course. I admit that I grumble a good deal, but I have submitted to discipline long enough to know the meaning of fortitude. Someone who studied with Dr Jung accused me of having masochistic traits in my attempts to help my fellow creatures! Thank heaven for the safety valve of laughter – it amounts to a talent with me.
‘I do not regret my experience with Mrs Perkins. My compassion for her incomprehension of faith is akin to that of the lament in the liturgy of Good Friday:
“Mine eyes are darkened by my tears, for He is far from me Who conquered me.”
‘IPerkins, Edith (EH's aunt)in her old-age infirmity;m8n have told Miss Hale time and time again that I made allowances for Mrs Perkins’s unfortunate disposition. In illness we all regress to childishness – and from the time that Mrs Perkins balked at eating oatmeal until her father bribed her with a nickel, she never really grew up. It is tragic that she who worked so hard at gardening never learned to cultivate the inner life. “Il faut cultiver son jardin” [Voltaire, Candide (1759)] has never had any significance for her. I appreciate the nature of Dr Perkins’s suffering. I have seen notes scribbled to himself, “Strive for patience and sweet reasonableness.” Dr Perkins owned a Roman Missal edited by Father [Joseph] Rickaby, S.J., which he used to read every Sunday and from which Mrs Perkins had me read the Collects which Dr Perkins had underlined. Millie, the night nurse, told me that it was a great comfort to Dr Perkins in his last illness to have her recite the rosary to him. She had to explain the meaning of the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries to him. It upset Mrs Perkins no end to hear Dr Perkins converse at length during the night … I have no doubt that Dr Perkins was a naturally Christian soul and that at length he triumphed in spite of the domestic handicap. Mrs Perkins told me that he repeated over and over again: “I have perfect faith.” That to me is very significant. I am sure that God in His singular mercy bestowed the gift of faith to Dr Perkins before he died. It was a source of constant wonderment to me to note Mrs Perkins’s avid interest and curiosity in the biographies of the great converts to the Roman Catholic faith.
‘I make bold to pray to Dr Perkins to intercede for me because heaven must have been opened to him directly for the heroic life he led – and that without the aid of the grace of the sacraments! MrsKrauss, Sophie M.;b2n Krauss once asked me why I was so good to Mrs Perkins. I told her I hoped that God would reward my patience by blessing my loved ones. Mrs Krauss said, “That’s rubbish. You don’t bargain with God.” I don’t believe that Dr Perkins would have said that. […]
‘In the meantime, I rejoice for you in the prospect of a two-month period away at sea. I pray that you will return fully refreshed and vigorous. God be with you.’
2.InaClaire, Ina Claire (1893–1985), popular American stage and screen actor – lauded for her performance as the Grand Duchess Swana in Ernst Lubitsch’s Ninotcha (1939), starring Greta Garbo – was cast as Lady Elizabeth Mulhammer in the New York production of The Confidential Clerk: it was to be her last appearance on stage. Henry Sherek, Not in Front of the Children (1959), 190: ‘I had received a mysterious cable in London from Ina Claire. She is probably the finest comedy actress in America, but after marrying a wealthy lawyer she had been living in retirement in San Francisco for the last seven years. Every first-line production in New York had been trying to get her to come back to Broadway but she consistently turned down their affairs.
‘Her cable read: “Perhaps I could help you out if so my address is …”’
TSE to Robert Giroux, 23 Dec. 1953: ‘I am hoping that Ina Claire, at least, is popular with the New York critics. She seemed to me fairly dynamic.’
3.The Nobel Prize for Literature 1953 was awarded to Sir Winston Churchill ‘for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for his brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values’. TSE to Olga Rudge, 15 Nov. 1953: ‘First of all, about Churchill. He has been awarded, surprising as it is, the Nobel Prize for Literature. What Sir Winston’s notions of “Literature” may be, or what may be his notion of his obligations towards it, I do not know. But in any case, he is primarily Prime Minister of Britain.’
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.
2.InaClaire, Ina Claire (1893–1985), popular American stage and screen actor – lauded for her performance as the Grand Duchess Swana in Ernst Lubitsch’s Ninotcha (1939), starring Greta Garbo – was cast as Lady Elizabeth Mulhammer in the New York production of The Confidential Clerk: it was to be her last appearance on stage. Henry Sherek, Not in Front of the Children (1959), 190: ‘I had received a mysterious cable in London from Ina Claire. She is probably the finest comedy actress in America, but after marrying a wealthy lawyer she had been living in retirement in San Francisco for the last seven years. Every first-line production in New York had been trying to get her to come back to Broadway but she consistently turned down their affairs.
1.DrHearsey, Dr Marguerite Capen Marguerite Capen Hearsey (1893–1990) was 14th Principal of Abbot Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, 1936–55. Educated at Hollins College, Roanoke, Virginia, and at Radcliffe College, she taught French and English at Georgetown College in Kentucky; and English at both Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, and Wellesley College, 1924–5, 1927–9. In 1929 she earned a PhD at Yale, where she was a Sterling Fellow and specialised in Elizabethan literature; she studied too at the Sorbonne. Before moving on to Andover, she taught at Hollins, 1929–36. She served, too, as President of the National Association of Principals of Schools for Girls.
1.SophieKrauss, Sophie M. M. Krauss (b. 1891), wife of Arthur Jeffrey Krauss (1884–1947), Episcopalian, who had resided in Seattle since 1921. Arthur Krauss ran the Krauss Brothers Lumber Company and was to retire in 1938 when the business was wound up in the area. They lived at 128 40th Avenue N., Seattle, with Lillie Cook (49) and Lucy Williams (28) – presumably their servants. See too Lyndall Gordon, The Hyacinth Girl, 183.
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.’
2.MargaretLeighton, Margaret Leighton (1922–76): British stage and film actor whose credits included roles in Henry IV (1946), with Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson; and The Winslow Boy (1948). For The Go-Between (1971), she was to win a BAFTA and an Academy Award. TSE to Polly Tandy, 10 Aug. 1953: ‘The rehearsals are going well: the females in the cast – Margaret Leighton, Isabel Jeans, and Alison Leggat – are all well cast for their parts, and I seem to be able to judge the female actresses more quickly than the male actors – partly, perhaps, because I seem for some reason to be better at writing the female roles than the male.’
3.DrPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle) John Carroll Perkins (1862–1950), Minister of King’s Chapel, Boston: see Biographical Register.
3.Ezra PoundPound, Ezra (1885–1972), American poet and critic: see Biographical Register.
4.HenrySherek, Henry Sherek (1900–1967), theatre producer: see Biographical Register.