[35A School St., Andover, Mass.]
I have not much to report, yet it seems that I have not yet acknowledged your letter of October 22. I am sorry to think that you were so tired, so early in the term, and fear that you will be pretty well exhausted before Christmas. I find that I myself seem to tire more easily than before my illness, though when I am not tired I think my brain works as well as ever. I'Goethe as the Sage';a2 am struggling to finish myUniversity of Hamburgawards TSE Hanseatic Goethe Prize;a1 Hamburg address, thoughtravels, trips and plansTSE's deferred 1955 visit to Hamburg;i6proposed for spring 1955;a3 I do not propose to go there until the spring: towards the end of April, if they will have me then – but until I am sure of the end of my writing, I cannot fix any of my dates for next year. My doctor persists in urging me to go abroad for my winters, though there is nowhere I want to go, by myself – and the really good winter climates are so remote – and I don’t like to waste so much time, for I cannot work satisfactorily in distant resorts. I might go to visit friends in the South of France in January – alternatively, I might try Cyprus in February – French North Africa does not offer the inducements for the foreign visitor, as it looks too unsettled politically.
IPowel, Harford Willing Hare;a1 remember meeting young Harford Powell [sc. Powel]: hisPowel, Harford Willing Hare, Jr.;a1 father I remember dimly at Harvard, as an undergraduate who dabbled in literature – an uncle was in my class.1 He seemed a serious young man, not so young either, perhaps. YourPerkins, Edith (EH's aunt);n5 Aunt EdithSheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister);k7 does not seem very old to me – myEliot, Margaret Dawes (TSE's sister);e1 sister Margaret will be 83 in a fortnight or so, and Ada was two years older than Margaret.
WhyShaw, George BernardPygmalion;b3 doesShaw, George BernardTSE on;a3 ‘Pygmalion’ have to be so much modified? The plot turns, if I remember rightly, upon a falsehood – as one would expect of Shaw: namely, that social status is merely a matter of speech. No one has ever come nearer than Shaw to fooling all of the people all of the time: at least he has fooled the great majority of the people all of the time, and that is success enough. But I should [not] think that ‘Pygmalion’ would be at all an easy play to produce.
TheHale, Emilywritings;x4'Actors at Alnwick';a9 letter from Miss Wilkinson was nice: I return it, with your other enclosures, including the report on Alnwick, under separate cover.2
IBayley, John;a1 wrote to John Bayley a short letter of condolence on his mother’s death.
The Christmas present sent by surface mail.
1.HarfordPowel, Harford Willing Hare, Jr. Willing Hare Powel, Jr. (1887–1956), writer and publicist. HisPowel, Harford Willing Hare son, Harford Willing Hare Powel (1916–65), suffered a severe wartime injury that necessitated several years of convalescence; but he went on to graduate from Brown University (AB, 1952; MA in English, 1954), and taught English at Phillips Andover Academy, Massachusetts, 1954–9.
2.‘Actors at Alnwick’: see Appendix.
6.MargaretEliot, Margaret Dawes (TSE's sister) Dawes Eliot (1871–1956), TSE's second-oldest sister sister, resident in Cambridge, Mass. In an undated letter (1952) to his Harvard friend Leon M. Little, TSE wrote: ‘Margaret is 83, deaf, eccentric, recluse (I don’t think she has bought any new clothes since 1900).’
1.HarfordPowel, Harford Willing Hare, Jr. Willing Hare Powel, Jr. (1887–1956), writer and publicist. HisPowel, Harford Willing Hare son, Harford Willing Hare Powel (1916–65), suffered a severe wartime injury that necessitated several years of convalescence; but he went on to graduate from Brown University (AB, 1952; MA in English, 1954), and taught English at Phillips Andover Academy, Massachusetts, 1954–9.
1.HarfordPowel, Harford Willing Hare, Jr. Willing Hare Powel, Jr. (1887–1956), writer and publicist. HisPowel, Harford Willing Hare son, Harford Willing Hare Powel (1916–65), suffered a severe wartime injury that necessitated several years of convalescence; but he went on to graduate from Brown University (AB, 1952; MA in English, 1954), and taught English at Phillips Andover Academy, Massachusetts, 1954–9.
2.AdaSheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister) Eliot Sheffield (1869–1943), eldest of the seven Eliot children; author of The Social Case History: Its Construction and Content (1920) and Social Insight in Case Situations (1937): see Biographical Register.