[41 Brimmer St., Boston]
It was such a relief to get your letter of the 26th this morning that it has driven all other events and ideas out of my head – I feel the exhaustion which comes with relief of a great tension. I was certainly more apprehensive than my letters have shown you, and I now find, even more apprehensive than I allowed myself to know. WhatHale, Emilycorrespondence with TSE;w3TSE violently dependent on;b9 a violently dependent person I am! I don’t want to badger you, or add to your burdens; but remember, whenever you are too busy or tired to write during a week, that a picture postcard (say of the present Mayor of Boston, or something of that sort) with nothing but my name and address in your dear writing, will keep me from anxiety.
Well, the pictures (I am glad there is more than one) have not yet arrived; but parcels are always slower than letters; and I shall hope to see them at last on Monday or Tuesday.
Itravels, trips and plansTSE's 1933 westward tour to Scripps;a8possibly via St. Louis;a3 begin to feel, after this last letter, that I really shall see you in some way or another, and that makes me more contented. IAmericaSt. Louis, Missouri;h4;a4 shall certainly go to St. Louis for a few days after Christmas: mySmith, Rose Greenleaf Eliot (TSE's aunt);a1 Aunt Rose there has invited me to stay with her and her husband.1 So I shall be quite ready to go anywhere, at any time during the months of January [sic], to see you. As you say, no plan can be made yet.
ItHale, Emily Jose Milliken (EH's mother);a7 had occurred to me, my dove, that such distant separation from your mother would be an anxiety for you; and I am very glad indeed that the Perkins’s will be in Boston: and in all the circumstances, so far as I know them, I think it would have been folly to have allowed your mother’s condition to influence you against going. Indeed, I think that it is better that you should be where you cannot see her for months at a time; for I am sure, without your telling me, that every visit leaves you in a state of exhaustion.
The'Difficulties of a Statesman'Commerce edition;a1 reason why I have not sent ‘Difficulties of a Statesman’ is that I have been daily expecting Commerce with the thing neatly in print; but if it does not come in a few days I shall copy it out for you.2 Meanwhile'Lines to a Persian Cat'copied and explained for EH;a1 here is a small Stanza – composed in the underground – I missed a station through it – tooBlake, Williampervades 'Lines to a Persian Cat';a2 reminiscentHopkins, Gerard Manley'Lines to a Persian Cat' too reminiscent of;a4 of Blake and Hopkins to have any value, but it may amuse you) –
Lines to a Persian Cat.
The songsters of the air repair
To the green fields of Russell Square.
There is no ease beneath the trees
For the dull brain, the sharp desires,
And the quick eyes of Woolly Bear.
There is no relief but in grief.
O when will the creaking heart cease?
When will the broken chair give ease?
Why does the summer day delay?
When will Time flow away?3
I have very little time this morning, as I was so exhausted that I slept till 10:30. I was busy all day, thenEliots, the T. S.again to OM's;b7 rushed back at 5:30 to drive V. to Ottoline’sMorrell, Lady Ottolineinvites the Eliots to meet Walter de la Mare;b9 – she wanted us as Walter de la Mare was coming, & I rarely see him4 – alsoStephens, James;a3 James Stephens, looking ill, SturgeMoore, Thomas ('T.') Sturgehis pink and white complexion;a1 Moore pink and white, CattauiCattaui, Georgesagain at OM's;a5 and some of the usual people. ThenEliots, the T. S.;c5 back to supper at home as Alida Monro was coming – sheMonro, Haroldneeds another operation;b1 tells me there is very little hope for Harold; heThorps, thehost the Eliots for claret, cheesecake and Ombre;b5 must have another operation in any case; then we drove after supper – in two cars – to the Thorps, to play a very pleasant game of ombre, and partake of claret and cheesecake. V. has taken a tremendous fancy to MargaretThorp, Margaret (née Farrand)VHE's liking for;a2 – IMonro, Alida (née Klementaski);a3 was pleased that AlidaSitwell, Edith;a9 asked them in to her next week to meet Edith Sitwell. We got home about 11:15. WhatEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood)her driving;b3 exhausts me particularly is the driving, or rather the being driven by V.; she enjoys it, and it’s her car after all – but she is not a good driver, and I am in a continuous tension waiting to pull the brake or turn the wheel. I have found this car driving business one of the most tiring things in life in the last two years, and having to pretend that I don’t mind it.
I must stop until Monday – you will have given me a peaceful weekend, –exceptHale, EmilyTSE's love for;x2not immune to jealousy of EH's male friends;b4 that you are by way of making me wildly jealous: you are to laugh at that, of course, because you know I should like you to have all the friends of every kind that anyone needs: but still: ‘why not acknowledge’ it? I can’t help it. My lady friends, two or three there are, are all married to charming husbands whom [sic] are my friends also: so that’s that.
1.Rose Greenleaf Eliot (1862–1936) and her husband Holmes Smith (1863–1937).
2.‘Difficulties of a Statesman’, Commerce 29 (Winter [1931/]1932), 79–87.
3.Included in ‘Five-Finger Exercises’: Poems, 1, 141, 839–40.
4.Walterde la Mare, Walter de la Mare (1873–1956), poet, novelist, short story writer, worked for the Statistics Department of the Anglo-American Oil Company, 1890–1908, before being freed to become a freelance writer by a £200 royal bounty negotiated by Henry Newbolt. He wrote many popular works: poetry including The Listeners (1912) and Peacock Pie (1913); novels including Henry Brocken (1904) and Memoirs of a Midget (1921); anthologies including Come Hither (1923). Appointed OM, 1953; CH, 1948. F&F brought out several of his books including Collected Rhymes and Verses (1942) and Collected Poems (1948); and TSE wrote ‘To Walter de la Mare’ for A Tribute to Walter de la Mare (1948). See further Theresa Whistler, Imagination of the Heart: The Life of Walter de la Mare (1993).
5.‘Homage to your Highness from her devoted admirer’.
3.GeorgesCattaui, Georges Cattaui (1896–1974), Egyptian-born (scion of aristocratic Alexandrian Jews: cousin of Jean de Menasce) French diplomat and writer; his works include T. S. Eliot (1958), Constantine Cavafy (1964), Proust and his metamorphoses (1973). TSE to E. R. Curtius, 21 Nov. 1947: ‘I received the book by Cattaui [Trois poètes: Hopkins, Yeats, Eliot (Paris, 1947)] and must say that I found what he had to say about myself slightly irritating. There are some personal details which are unnecessary and which don’t strike me as in the best taste.’
4.Walterde la Mare, Walter de la Mare (1873–1956), poet, novelist, short story writer, worked for the Statistics Department of the Anglo-American Oil Company, 1890–1908, before being freed to become a freelance writer by a £200 royal bounty negotiated by Henry Newbolt. He wrote many popular works: poetry including The Listeners (1912) and Peacock Pie (1913); novels including Henry Brocken (1904) and Memoirs of a Midget (1921); anthologies including Come Hither (1923). Appointed OM, 1953; CH, 1948. F&F brought out several of his books including Collected Rhymes and Verses (1942) and Collected Poems (1948); and TSE wrote ‘To Walter de la Mare’ for A Tribute to Walter de la Mare (1948). See further Theresa Whistler, Imagination of the Heart: The Life of Walter de la Mare (1993).
3.AlidaMonro, Alida (née Klementaski) Klementaski (1892–1969) married Harold Monro on 27 Mar. 1920: see Alida Monro in Biographical Register.
6.Harold MonroMonro, Harold (1879–1932), poet, editor, publisher, bookseller: see Biographical Register.
5.T. SturgeMoore, Thomas ('T.') Sturge Moore (1870–1944), poet, playwright, critic, and artist – brother of the philosopher G. E. Moore – was christened Thomas but adopted his mother’s maiden name ‘Sturge’ to avoid confusion with the Irish poet Thomas Moore. A prolific poet, author of 31 plays, and a loyal contributor to the Criterion, he was also a close friend of W. B. Yeats, for whom he designed bookplates and bookbindings. He published his first collection of poetry, The Vinedresser and Other Poems, in 1899.
4.LadyMorrell, Lady Ottoline Ottoline Morrell (1873–1938), hostess and patron: see Biographical Register.
2.EdithSitwell, Edith Sitwell (1887–1964), poet, biographer, anthologist, novelist: see Biographical Register.
1.RoseSmith, Rose Greenleaf Eliot (TSE's aunt) Greenleaf Eliot (1862–1936), andSmith, Holmes (TSE's uncle) Holmes Smith (1863–1937), Professor of Drawing and the History of Art, Washington University; first President of the College Art Association.
7.JamesStephens, James Stephens (?1882–1950), Irish novelist and poet; close friend of OM.
16.MargaretThorp, Margaret (née Farrand) Farrand (1891–1970), author and journalist – see Margaret Thorp in Biographical Register.