[35A School St., Andover, Mass.]
I was very happy to get your completely legible letter of the 21st, though for some reason your typing would be also completely legible through the paper to anyone who took the trouble to hold the letter up to a mirror (I have tried it on your hand mirror). Perhaps it is because you don’t use a backing sheet? I am glad to have more cheerful news than that contained in your letter to Geneva. I think I understand what some of your experiences were in trying to collect money for Miss Nevins. But it is surprising how many quite prosperous people succeed in not coming in contact with people who need help. On the other hand, there are people like theSpark, Murielimportunes then castigates TSE;a1 lady (previously unknown to me) who wanted me to pay for her to have lessons in Hebrew so that she could write a book about Job, then decided that what she wanted was to study Greek in order to write about Greek influences in my own work, and when I said I could only afford to help people with definite and pressing needs, complained that my letter was insolent.1
I am also glad that a new nurse-companion has been found, though one who may eventually be found guilty of imperfection. And when they are not found wanting, I fear that they are heavily imposed upon – ILavorgna, Elvira Giovanna;a5 suspected that Miss Lavorgna could hardly call her soul her own when she was there. And finally, I am glad to hear that Drama has been given some status. When it is wholly outside of, and in addition to normal studies, it must inevitably interfere with them – and they with it – so that neither activity is as profitable as it should be.
ButHancock, Isabel Maxwell;a1 I’mAbbot Academy, Andover, Massachusetts;b3 alarmed to hear that Miss Hancock2 thinks I am going to give a talk at Abbott [sic]. (Iftravels, trips and plansTSE's 1955 visit to America;i7and contingent speaking engagements;a1 I gave all the talks and readings expected of me my main purpose in coming, to see my kin and friends, would be wholly frustrated, instead of merely partly frustrated. I have undertaken to give two readings in New York, for which I expect to receive $500 each – which I should hope to see me through a visit of four or five weeks. You understand, I am sure, that my aim must be to give the minimum number for the maximum fees, furthermore, if I did too many on one visit, I might have difficulty in finding good appointments near at hand on the next visit. IMcPherrin, Jeanetteasks TSE to read at Wellesley;g4 have just heard from Jean McPherrin and somebody else askingWellesley CollegeJeanie McPherrin asks TSE to read at;a8 me to give a reading at Wellesley, but I shall explain that I should prefer to save that for the next visit, as it offers $500 also.3 Perhaps when I saw Miss Hancock I had just been, or was just going to Cambridge (England): butEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister)1954 trip to England with Dodo;h5visit to Ely and Cambridge;a4 ISmith, Theodora ('Dodo') Eliot (TSE's niece)1954 visit to England;d7;a4 went there for a couple of nights merely to be with Marian and Theodora (I took them one afternoon to Ely) and to dine in College – do people think that I never go anywhere without giving a lecture there? I said I hoped to visit Abbott again – knowing that if I came out to see you there in term it would probably get known – but I’m afraid that I can’t do any set pieces for them. I have too much to do, this coming year, to have time to prepare lectures to offer.
Itravels, trips and plansTSE's 1954 Geneva rest cure;i5;a5 had a thoroughly satisfactory visit to the Clements in Geneva – the two postcards I sent you from there will probably arrive in two or three weeks time as usual – the weather was warmer than in England, and several days were delightfully hot. JimClement, James;a7 had a liver attack, which happily did not turn to jaundice, which kept him in doors for the first week; but I had several pleasant drives in the country. And I am always happy in Geneva – as I don’t suppose I ever shall be happy again in Paris.
1.MurielSpark, Muriel Spark, née Camberg (1918-2006): British author, novelist, poet, essayist and memoirist. She was born and brought up in Edinburgh, where her father was Jewish of Lithuanian ancestry; her mother an Anglican (who converted to Judaism). An early marriage in 1937, to an older man, Sidney Spark, came to a swift end when she discovered her husband to be depressive and violent. She had one son, Samuel Robin Spark (1938–2016), who grew up to be an artist. After early years of struggle, including a period as editor of Poetry Review, 1947–48, she proved her career and critical reputation with the publication of The Comforters (1957), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961) and The Girls of Slender Means (1963).
SparkSpark, Murielimportunes then castigates TSE;a1 first contacted TSE out of the blue, from 30 Old Brompton Road, London S.W.7, on 10 Aug. 1954, with a request for financial support to enable her to sort out her affairs – a gift outright. The next day, before TSE could reply to her opening gambit, she wrote again to request a personal interview to discuss her affairs. AtEliot, Esmé Valerie (née Fletcher, TSE's second wife)vets Muriel Spark;b2n some point over the next two weeks, TSE’s secretary Valerie Fletcher did interview Spark: the circumstances are not known, but TSE must have shared Spark’s unusual begging letter with her. Whether Valerie volunteered to have a chat with Spark or TSE requested it of her, is not to be known.
TSE replied for the first time, following a briefing by his secretary, on 24 Aug. 1954: he was sorry that Spark was occupied by work that she found dissatisfying. ‘I understand that you are proposing to write a book on the subject of the Book of Job, and that you have a publisher who is interested and prepared to publish it, and that you are anxious to learn Hebrew in connection with your labours. Possibly the publisher in question could assist you in your needs for the consummation of this piece of work?’ TSE had been advised too that Spark felt she needed treatment by a psychiatrist; and he suggested – since she related that she was a recent convert to Catholicism – that it might be best for her to seek prior counsel from ‘a priest or religious who has made a study of psychology, theWhite, Fr Victor Francis, OPrecommended to Muriel Spark;a1n obvious name occurring to my mind being that of Father Victor White, O.P.’ (TSE knew Father White by reputation.)
OnConfidential Clerk, TheMuriel Spark on;b8n 27 Aug. 1954, SparkCocktail Party, TheMuriel Spark on;e8n wrote again to tell him that she had given up her plans to write a monograph on the Book of Job; instead, she proposed to write about some Greek undertones that she detected in TSE’s recent play The Confidential Clerk – and perhaps also in The Cocktail Party – and wished to research what she considered that beautiful Greek subtext. To that end, she went on, might TSE consider subsidizing her Greek studies?
TSE was taken aback by her fancy that she had espied some sort of arcane significance underpinning his work as playwright, and replied on 2 Sept. 1954: ‘I note that you have now abandoned your proposed work on the Book of Job, but that on the other hand, you propose to undertake the study of Greek influences on my plays. I say “Greek influences”, but so far as I can gather from your letter, you detect much more than this, a kind of esoteric Greek play concealed behind the English play. I am afraid I cannot, on the basis of what you tell me, give the slightest encouragement to an investigation of this sort. I should be most astonished if there was in my plays any likeness to Greek drama deeper than the obvious borrowings which form part of my conscious design. You say that you would like to learn Greek. That is a very commendable ambition in itself, but I certainly do not think that the desire to write about Greek elements in my plays is an adequate reason.’ Her needs, he went on, seemed ‘both too vague and too shifting’ for him to know how to help her; and he could ‘only consider assistance within definite limits and for very definite needs.’
As for her expressed wish to support her son – who was currently living with her parents – TSE felt sympathetic. ‘If he is already sixteen, and has been brought up by your parents as an orthodox practising Jew, it is perhaps either too late or too soon to consider influencing him in the direction of the Catholic faith. If, however, he has been brought up simply according to good Jewish ethics without Jewish faith, it is not quite the same situation. If he came to live with you, I have no doubt that your example as a practising Catholic might be influential, where a direct attempt to convert him might meet with resistance.’ Either way, he concluded, the immediate important thing seemed for her to come by ‘fuller employment’.
See further Martin Stannard, Muriel Spark: The Biography (2009).
2.IsabelHancock, Isabel Maxwell Maxwell Hancock (d. 1964), a graduate of Hollins College and the University of Virginia (MA), was instructor in mathematics at Abbot Academy; she served too as Director of Admissions – and (in the official term) ‘hostess’.
3.TSE replied to McPherrin on 6 Oct. 1954. He added, ‘I hope you will be seeing Emily before long. I am pretty sure that Aunt Edith is as difficult as ever, if not more so.’
2.JamesClement, James Clement (1889–1973), Harvard Class of 1911, marriedClement, Margot Marguerite C. Burrel (who was Swiss by birth) in 1913. In later years, TSE liked visiting them at their home in Geneva.
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.Marian/MarionEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister) Cushing Eliot (1877–1964), fourth child of Henry Ware Eliot and Charlotte Eliot: see Biographical Register.
2.IsabelHancock, Isabel Maxwell Maxwell Hancock (d. 1964), a graduate of Hollins College and the University of Virginia (MA), was instructor in mathematics at Abbot Academy; she served too as Director of Admissions – and (in the official term) ‘hostess’.
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.JeanetteMcPherrin, Jeanette McPherrin (1911–92), postgraduate student at Scripps College; friend of EH: see Biographical Register.
2.TheodoraSmith, Theodora ('Dodo') Eliot (TSE's niece) Eliot Smith (1904–92) – ‘Dodo’ – daughter of George Lawrence and Charlotte E. Smith: see Biographical Register. Theodora’sSmith, Charlotte ('Chardy') Stearns (TSE's niece) sister was Charlotte Stearns Smith (b. 1911), known as ‘Chardy’.
1.MurielSpark, Muriel Spark, née Camberg (1918-2006): British author, novelist, poet, essayist and memoirist. She was born and brought up in Edinburgh, where her father was Jewish of Lithuanian ancestry; her mother an Anglican (who converted to Judaism). An early marriage in 1937, to an older man, Sidney Spark, came to a swift end when she discovered her husband to be depressive and violent. She had one son, Samuel Robin Spark (1938–2016), who grew up to be an artist. After early years of struggle, including a period as editor of Poetry Review, 1947–48, she proved her career and critical reputation with the publication of The Comforters (1957), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961) and The Girls of Slender Means (1963).