[35A School St., Andover, Mass.]

T. S.Eliot
EmilyHale
TS
19 Carlyle Mansions
22 October 1954
My Dear Emily

I have just written half a dozen air letters, includingHinkley, Eleanor Holmes (TSE's first cousin)invites TSE to stay in Boston;e8 one to Eleanor Hinkley who has invited me to stay with her when in Cambridge next May (a rather surprising initiative which touched me) and should be sorry not to include in the pile for the post a word however brief to you. It is some time since I have any news from you, you know. IRichmonds, theTSE's Netherhampton weekends with;a7Richmond, BruceRichmonds, theRichmond, ElenaRichmonds, the should not have been writing any of these letters this afternoon except that the Richmonds have asked me to come tomorrow (Saturday) morning instead of tonight, as she has had to have a plaster cast removed from her ankle and couldn’t drive the car. I dread weekend and other brief visits more and more. I shall not go away again until the spring, unlessEnglandLondon;h1its fogs;a5 I leave London, either for abroad or for the seaside somewhere, for my own good, to escape fogs and people. But the Richmonds are very old friends, ofCastles, thespecial status;a1Castle, William R., JrCastles, the somewhat the same status as the Castles in Washington; and as he is now 82, I think, I don’t like to let the year end without having paid my respects to them.

After next week I am to leave off my massage and deep heat, which has been taking up so much of my time. The shoulder is very much more supple – and I continue doing exercises night and morning – but may need some more treatment after Christmas. AndJones, DavidTSE's broadcast on;a4 now that I'Note on In Parenthesis and The Anathemata by David Jones, A';a1 have done my broadcast about David Jones,1 and'Note on Monstre Gai, by Wyndham Lewis, A';a1 my article on Wyndham Lewis for the Hudson Review,2 I'Goethe as the Sage''maddening';a1 shall return to Goethe, because I want to get that maddening piece of work off my hands before I contemplate the winter. Doctor would like me to go away from the middle of December until early in February, and I am resisting this, especially as he wants me to go south – preferably to Marrakesh, which sounds appallingly boring, and I can’t work so far from a library. I want to go to Brighton for January, and that does not seem to suit his book. And'Aims of Education, The'candidate for Reith Lectures;a5 I do want to re-write my Chicago lectures (itBritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)floats Reith Lectures suggestion;e5 has been suggested to me that I should adapt them for broadcasting as ‘Reith Lectures’, the chief broadcast talks of each year) inElder Statesman, The;a1 the hope of beginning work on a new play in about a year’s time.

The outlook in England not very cheerful at the moment. Last week I got a good deal of walking, because of the bus strike (as a result of which every private car in England seemed to be massed on the streets of London); butLondon Dock Strike, 1954;a1 the dock strike is much more serious. IEden, Anthony;a6 suspect that it is partly a communist response to the success, or partial success, of Eden in contriving some sort of Western European agreement.3

Do write, however briefly, or I shall conclude that you are ill.

With much love
Your
Tom

1.See ‘A Note on In Parenthesis and The Anathemata, by David Jones’ – for a radio programme broadcast on the Welsh Home Service on 29 Oct. 1954 – CProse 8, 44–6.

2.‘A Note on Monstre Gai, by Wyndham Lewis’, Hudson Review 7 (1954–5), 522–6: CProse 8, 29–34. ‘The opinion to which I do not hesitate to commit myself, is that Mr Lewis is the greatest prose master of style of my generation.’

3.The London dock strike, which lasted from 4 Oct. to 1 Nov., was instigated by problems arising from the handling of meat, and spread to questions of overtime working.

'Aims of Education, The', finished, first lecture, second lecture, candidate for Reith Lectures, TSE rewriting,
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), TSE's committee service for, its future discussed, TSE working on autumn programme for, TSE on educational broadcasting in general, Barbara Burnham production of Murder, lobbies TSE for next play, 'The Need for Poetic Drama', Metaphyical poet broadcasts for, 'The Church's Message to the World', Christmas Day 'Cats' broadcast, dramatic Waste Land adaptation, which is censored for broadcast, repeats 'Cats', plays Parsifal on Good Friday, broadcasts Hawkins interview with TSE, 'Towards a Christian Britain', 1941 production of Murder, Eastern Service broadcasts East Coker, broadcasts Webster talk, Tennyson talk, Dry Salvages, Poe talk, Dryden talk, Joyce talk, European Service broadcasts TSE's talk, TSE declines Christmas broadcast for, wants to record 'Milton II', broadcasts TSE's personal poetry selection, broadcasts Gielgud's Family Reunion, marks TSE's 60th birthday, Gielgud Family Reunion repeated, solicits TSE post-Nobel Prize, TSE's EP broadcast for, records TSE reading Ash-Wednesday, floats Reith Lectures suggestion, approaches Marilyn Monroe to star in Fitts's Lysistrata,
Castles, the, special status,
Eden, Anthony, resigns, at TSE's Cambridge degree ceremony, compared to Labour alternative, as prime minister,

1.TheEden, Anthony Rt. Hon. Anthony Eden, MC, MP (1897–1977), Conservative politician; Foreign Secretary, 1940–5; Prime Minister, 1955–7. Appointed to the Order of the Garter, 1954; raised to the peerage as Earl of Avon, 1961.

Elder Statesman, The, and Oedipus Coloneus, TSE writing, in abeyance,
England, TSE as transatlantic cultural conduit for, discomforts of its larger houses, and Henry James, at times unreal, TSE's patriotic homesickness for, which is not a repudiation of America, TSE's want of relations in, encourages superiority in Americans familiar with, reposeful, natural ally of France, compared to Wales, much more intimate with Europe than America, TSE on his 'exile' in, undone by 'Dividend morality', in wartime, war binds TSE to, post-war, post-war privations, the English, initially strange to TSE, contortions of upward mobility, comparatively rooted as a people, TSE more comfortable distinguishing, the two kinds of duke, TSE's vision of wealthy provincials, its Tories, more blunt than Americans, as congregants, considered racially superior, a relief from the Scottish, don't talk in poetry, compared to the Irish, English countryside, around Hindhead, distinguished, the West Country, compared to New England's, fen country, in primrose season, the English weather, cursed by Joyce, suits mistiness, preferred to America's, distinguished for America's by repose, relaxes TSE, not rainy enough, English traditions, Derby Day, Order of Merit, shooting, Varsity Cricket Match, TSE's dislike of talking cricket, rugby match enthralls, the death of George V, knighthood, the English language, Adlestrop, Gloucestershire, visited by EH and TSE, Amberley, West Sussex, ruined castle at, Arundel, West Sussex, TSE's guide to, Bath, Somerset, TSE 'ravished' by, EH visits, Bemerton, Wiltshire, visited on Herbert pilgrimage, Blockley, Gloucestershire, tea at the Crown, Bosham, West Sussex, EH introduced to, Bridport, Dorset, Tandys settled near, Burford, Oxfordshire, EH staying in, too hallowed to revisit, Burnt Norton, Gloucestershire, TSE remembers visiting, and the Cotswolds, its imagined fate, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, less oppressive than Oxford, TSE's vision of life in, possible refuge during Blitz, Charlbury, Oxfordshire, visited by EH and TSE, Chester, Cheshire, TSE's plans in, TSE on, Chichester, West Sussex, the Perkinses encouraged to visit, EH celebrates birthday in, TSE's guide to, 'The Church and the Artist', TSE gives EH ring in, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, Perkinses take house at, shockingly remote, TSE's first weekend at, likened to Florence, TSE jealous of memories associated with, its Arts & Crafts associations, its attractions to Dr Perkins, forever associated with TSE and EH, sound of the Angelus, without EH, treasured in TSE's memory, excursions from, EH on 'our' garden at, Stamford House passes into new hands, EH's fleeting return to, Cornwall, TSE's visit to, compared to North Devon, Cotswolds, sacred in TSE's memory, Derbyshire, as seen from Swanwick, Devon ('Devonshire'), likened to American South, the Eliots pre-Somerset home, its scenery, Dorset, highly civilised, TSE feels at home in, TSE's Tandy weekend in, Durham, TSE's visit to, East Anglia, its churches, TSE now feels at home in, East Coker, Somerset, visited by Uncle Chris and Abby, TSE conceives desire to visit, reasons for visiting, described, visited again, and the Shamley Cokers, now within Father Underhill's diocese, photographs of, Finchampstead, Berkshire, visited by TSE and EH, specifically the Queen's Head, Framlingham, Suffolk, visited, Garsington, Oxfordshire, recalled, Glastonbury, Somerset, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, Gloucestershire, highly civilised, its beautiful edge, its countryside associated with EH, TSE at home in, its domestic architecture, Hadsleigh, Suffolk, visited, Hampshire, journey through, TSE's New Forest holiday, Hereford, highly civilised, Hull, Yorkshire, and 'Literature and the Modern World', Ilfracombe, Devon, and the Field Marshal, hideous, Knole Park, Kent, Lavenham, Suffolk, visited, Leeds, Yorkshire, TSE lectures in, touring Murder opens in, the Dobrées visited in, home to EVE's family, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, TSE's visit to, especially the Bishop's Palace, Lincolnshire, arouses TSE's curiosity, unknown to EH, Lingfield, Surrey, Little Gidding, Cambridgeshire, TSE's long-intended expedition to, London, in TSE's experience, TSE's isolation within, affords solitude and anonymity, contrasted to country life, its fogs, socially freer than Boston and Paris, eternally misty, its lionhunters, rain preferable in, more 'home' to TSE than America, socially more legible than Boston, its society compared to Boston's, TSE's desire to live among cockneys, South Kensington too respectable, Clerkenwell, Camberwell, Blackheath, Greenwich scouted for lodging, its comparatively vigorous religious life, Camberwell lodging sought, Clerkenwell lodging sought, and music-hall nostalgia, abandoned by society in August, the varieties of cockney, TSE's East End sojourn, South Kensington grows on TSE, prepares for Silver Jubilee, South Kensington street names, Dulwich hallowed in memory, so too Greenwich, during 1937 Coronation, preparing for war, Dulwich revisited with family, in wartime, TSE as air-raid warden in, Long Melford, Suffolk, Lowestoft, Suffolk, Lyme Regis, Dorset, with the Morleys, Marlborough, Wiltshire, scene of a happy drink, Needham Market, Suffolk, Newcastle, Northumberland, TSE's visit to, Norfolk, appeals to TSE, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, dreary, Nottinghamshire, described for EH, Oxford, Oxfordshire, as recollected by TSE, past and present, EH takes lodgings in, haunted for TSE, in July, compared to Cambridge, Peacehaven, Sussex, amazing sermon preached in, Penrith, TSE's visit to, Rochester, as Dickens described, Salisbury, Wiltshire, in the Richmonds' company, Shamley Green, Surrey, TSE's ARP work in, its post office, Pilgrim Players due at, Somerset, highly civilised, TSE at home in, Southwold, Suffolk, TSE visits with family, Stanton, Gloucestershire, on TSE and EH's walk, Stanway, Gloucestershire, on EH and TSE's walk, Suffolk, TSE visits with family, Surrey, Morley finds TSE lodging in, evening bitter at the Royal Oak, TSE misses, as it must have been, Sussex, commended to EH, TSE walking Stane Street and downs, EH remembers, Walberswick, Suffolk, Wells, Somerset, TSE on visiting, Whipsnade, Bedfordshire, EH and TSE visit, Whitchurch Canonicorum, Dorset, delightful name, Wiltshire, highly civilised, TSE at home in, Winchelsea, East Sussex, visited, Winchester, TSE on, Wisbech, Lincolnshire, TSE on visiting, Worcestershire, TSE feels at home in, Yeovil, Somerset, visited en route to East Coker, York, TSE's glimpse of, Yorkshire,
see also British General Election
'Goethe as the Sage', 'maddening',
Hinkley, Eleanor Holmes (TSE's first cousin), announces presence in London, TSE regrets speaking lightly of, un-deracinated, compared to TSE, TSE shares EH's frustrations with, less perceptive than her mother, gives party for Eva Le Gallienne, unworldly, theatrical success might improve, takes TSE to football match, dances with TSE, at second Norton lecture, as EH's friend, unflattering photograph of, and EH attend American Murder, suspected of writing by the book, to Aunt Susie as Hope Mirrlees to Mappie, pursues adult education, prejudices TSE against George Baker, cossetted, TSE feels remote from, explodes two Stearns family myths, reportedly writing novel, and life after Aunt Susie, turned carer, passes up EH's invitation, recollected as girl, TSE attempts to lure to England, her impersonality, invites TSE to stay in Boston, reports on Margaret's funeral, TSE's improved relations with, as 1956 hostess, reports on EH, informs EH of TSE's health, engineers correspondence between EVE and EH, adaptation of Emma, central to TSE falling for EH, Charlotte Brontë play, TSE presents to London Play Company, TSE's verdict on, compared to Dear Jane, Dear Jane, to be produced in New York, consumes her, TSE happy to dodge premiere, but hopes to catch over Christmas, well reviewed in certain quarters, White Violets,
see also Hinkleys, the

5.EleanorHinkley, Eleanor Holmes (TSE's first cousin) Holmes Hinkley (1891–1971), playwright; TSE’s first cousin; daughter of Susan Heywood Stearns – TSE’s maternal aunt – and Holmes Hinkley: see Biographical Register.

Jones, David, TSE's first impressions of, thanks TSE for dinner, as TSE and EP's contemporary, TSE's broadcast on, In Parenthesis,

1.DavidJones, David Jones (1895–1974), poet and painter. Thomas Dilworth, David Jones: Engraver, Soldier, Painter, Poet (2017), 191: ‘Jones and Eliot were seeing more of each other. In the summer of 1936, at dinner with Eliot and others, Jones had liked him “a great lot”.’

London Dock Strike, 1954,
'Note on In Parenthesis and The Anathemata by David Jones, A',
'Note on Monstre Gai, by Wyndham Lewis, A',
Richmonds, the, TSE's new South Kensington neighbours, TSE's alcholic weekend with, host TSE in Sussex, TSE's Netherhampton weekends with, make their home over to maternity hospital,