[No surviving envelope]
YourHarvard Universityproduces Murder again;c9 letter of March 16th arrived after I had written to you on returning from the Cape. IMurder in the Cathedral1954 Harvard production;h2;a1 was much interested by your account of the Murder production at Harvard – I hadn’t even known that it was to be done, because the League of Dramatists handle all permissions, and I don’t even know where and when a play has been done until I get their statement of account. Murder seems almost as remote now as if someone else had written it – indeedConfidential Clerk, The1953 Lyric Theatre production;b3soon to come off;a3, The Confidential Clerk is beginning to be rather faint in my mind (but that’s a necessary preparation for ever starting anything new): and now that it is finishing its run here – forElliott, Denholmin which he proves irreplaceable;a2 itLeighton, Margaretleaving The Confidential Clerk;a5 is to come off at the end of April, owingKorda, Alexander;a1 to the fact that Denholm Elliott and Margaret Leighton are both under contract to Korda1 for films after that, and Elliott especially would be difficult to replace – it has joined the works in which I am no longer interested. It has had as good a run as could have been expected: they seem to think that it may just survive in New York until the warm weather.
But you suggest that I should write a word of congratulation to ‘the person suggested on the programme’ of Murder: and I have looked through the programme without finding any mark of the person you have in mind. If you will tell me which person I ought to write to, I will do so. You don’t mean this John Ratté (as near as I can make out the name?[)]
But I am distressed to hear about the eczema – an extremely unpleasant complaint to have, and indicative of nervous exhaustion. Thank goodness not on your face! For there I know it can imperil the eyesight. I am still alarmed lest that might happen, and I beg you to let me know of your progress.
I have not been very well myself: an acceleration of the pulse which my doctor thinks must be due to some sort of mental worry. He’s pretty sure that there’s nothing organically wrong, but I await the result of a cardiogram, as they call it, which should confirm his diagnosis. IUniversity of Hamburgawards TSE Hanseatic Goethe Prize;a1 haveGoethe, Johann Wolfgang vonobiter dictum on;a3 beentravels, trips and plansTSE's deferred 1955 visit to Hamburg;i6prospect inspires reluctance in TSE;a1 depressed by being awarded the ‘Hanseatic Goethe Prize’ of the University of Hamburg: because it requires me to produce an Address in honour of Goethe (not one of my favourite authors) to deliver in Hamburg at the end of the year.2 NowEliot, Henry Ware (TSE's father)TSE accepts Washington University degree to propitiate;a9, PrizesEliot, William Greenleaf (TSE's grandfather)Washington University degree accepted to propitiate;a5, like Honorary Degrees, come too late to appear as more than interruptions of the work I should like to be doing (thoughWashington University, St. Louisawards TSE honorary degree;a4 for sentimental reasons the degree from Washington University did mean a good deal to me, because I thought Grandfather would have been pleased, and my Father too).
IPerkins, Edith (EH's aunt);n2 will write to Aunt Edith. I fear that your ‘spring recess’ is now long since over.
TheBrownes, the Martin;d6Browne, Elliott Martin
Itravels, trips and plansTSE's 1954 Geneva rest cure;i5Geneva preferred to Paris;a1 hope to take a week or so holiday in May, by flying over to Geneva to stay with the Clements, which is always pleasant and restful. I have become attached to Geneva: curiously I no longer have the slightest desire to visit Paris; but Geneva suits me. ThenAuthors' Club, The'Author and Critic';a2 I'Author and Critic';a1 have to make an after dinner speech at the Authors’ Club,3 and respond for the Guests at the Annual Dinner of the Sons of the Clergy.
But I do want news of your eczema. That’s the greatest worry.
IBrowne, Henzie (née Raeburn);c1 return Henzie’s letter.
IHale, Emilyas director ('producer');v9The Merry Wives of Windsor;c8 was sorry forShakespeare, WilliamThe Merry Wives of Windsor;c2 you having to do the Merry Wives. Shakespeare’s worst play – and I have no doubt he was ashamed of it.
1.AlexanderKorda, Alexander Korda (1893–1956): famous Hungarian-born British film producer and director.
2.TSE had been awarded the Hanseatic Goethe Prize, in succession to Martin Buber (1951). The prize was ultimately to be conferred on him on 5 May 1955, when he delivered his address ‘Goethe as the Sage’: CProse 8, 62–84.
3.In the event, TSE gave his talk to the Authors’ Club, London, on 13 Apr. 1955: see ‘Author and Critic’, CProse 8, 53–61.
2.Washington University 1857–1932: Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the Inauguration (Washington University Press, Apr. 1932) saluted WilliamEliot, William Greenleaf (TSE's grandfather) Greenleaf Eliot (1811–87), one of the founders and third Chancellor of the university. ‘He was graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1834, and one year later was ordained as a minister. Desiring to identify himself with the West, he accepted an invitation from a group in St Louis, and organized the First Congregational Society, which later became the Church of the Messiah (Unitarian) … In 1853 he became the first president of the Board of Directors of Eliot Seminary, a position which he continued to hold after the change of name to Washington University, until 1870, when he became also acting chancellor. In 1872 he was elevated to the chancellorship’ (6). In an address given on 22 Apr. 1957, the Revd Dr W. G. Eliot proclaimed, ‘The charter under which we act is unexceptionable, – broad and comprehensive, – containing no limitation nor condition, except one introduced by our own request, as an amendment to the original act, namely, the prohibition of all sectarian and party tests and uses, in all departments of the institution, forever’ (11).
6.DenholmElliott, Denholm Elliott (1922–92) – Colby Simpkins in The Confidential Clerk – was a great character actor: his scene-stealing, award-winning appearances included parts in The Cruel Sea (1953), Alfie (1966), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989); and as the insidious Philip Neville in the TV adaptation of Anita Brookner’s Hotel du Lac (1986). CBE, 1988. Sherek to TSE, 13 Jan. 1953: ‘He is an excellent young man and is also a musician. Luckily his instrument is the piano.’ TSE to Elliott, 10 May 1954: ‘I particularly … want to thank you for all you did with the role of Colby. I realize that it was the most difficult part in the play, and in a sense, the most thankless, because I know what you did with it, and so few amongst any of the audiences could, I think, have realised what a difficult part it was. I am afraid that it is the one part in which the author did not succeed in finding the “objective correlative” (a phrase which I have come to dislike intensely, but which is the only one for what I want to say here). My grateful thanks and best wishes.’
1.AlexanderKorda, Alexander Korda (1893–1956): famous Hungarian-born British film producer and director.
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.’