[41 Brimmer St., Boston]

T. S.Eliot
EmilyHale
TS
The Criterion
22 March 1932
Dearest Lady,

I must again be very brief to-day; by Thursday morning I hope to be free enough to write a somewhat longer letter; but this week, with a number of business odds and ends to be cleared up before Easter, and'Modern Dilemma, The'being composed;a3 my last and therefore most difficult broadcast talk still unfinished; and much church going – on Thursday I must get up at 6, and Friday morning there is about three hours on end – has been very full. I think my Sunday talk went off well, but I don’t know how; IMonro, Haroldhis funeral;b3 felt very tired, and overwrought, after Harold’s funeral on Saturday. The crematorium service at Golder’s [sic] Green, though short, is very trying to me – IFassett, Irene Pearlher funeral;a2 had been there several years ago to the funeral of my first secretary. You feel very rushed: it may be for all I know the only crematorium in South England, and there seem to be funerals going on the whole time; you have to wait outside till the previous funeral is over, and get out quickly so that the next funeral can come in; and altogether there is much like a station-waiting-room feeling. There were a number of people I did not know; of those I do, onlySitwell, Edithat Harold Monro's funeral;b1 Edith Sitwell, GeneralCharlton, Air Commodore Lionelattends Harold Monro's funeral;a2 Charlton, RalphHodgson, Ralphat Monro's funeral;a7 Hodgson andFlint, Frank Stuart ('F. S.')at Monro's funeral;a5 Frank Flint. HadJoyce, JamesUlysses;e6Harold Monro's funeral calls to mind;a2 a cup of coffee with Hodgson and Flint afterwards, thought of the funeral in ‘Ulysses’,1 went home and slept all the rest of the day.2

I have been interrupted several times even in writing this tiny note. I shall write on Thursday; and I shall think of you very much at Easter Tide: but can I think more than I do always?

Prie pour nous autres pécheurs 3 – Tom.

1.The funeral of Paddy Dignam in ch. 6, ‘Hades’, of Joyce’s Ulysses.

2.Dominic Hibberd notes, in Harold Monro: Poet of the New Age (2001), 259: ‘The congregation at Golders Green Crematorium on 21 March 1932 numbered scarcely thirty people, conspicuous among them the tall, melancholy figures of Edith Sitwell, Eliot and Flint … Alida … was touched to see her old friend Ralph Hodgson, who happened to be on leave from Japan.’ Edith Sitwell wrote, in a letter to Alida Monro (‘Wednesday’), of TSE’s response to the news of HM’s death: ‘I saw Tom Eliot, for one moment only, and he looked broken’ (BL Add. MS. MS 83366).

3.‘Pray for us sinners.’ TSE seems to flirt with profanity in quoting the prayer ‘Hail Mary’: ‘Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.’

Charlton, Air Commodore Lionel, attends Harold Monro's funeral, at Alida Monro's,

2.AirCharlton, Air Commodore Lionel Commodore Lionel Charlton, CB, CMG, DSO (1879–1958), military officer during the Boer War and WW1, rising to be brigadier general. In Feb. 1923, while serving as Chief Staff Officer for the RAF’s Iraq Command, he resigned in protest against the policy of bombing Iraqi villages with a view to quelling possible unrest. Later, children’s author and autobiographer. His reminiscences were published by F&F in 1931.

Fassett, Irene Pearl, her photograph on TSE's mantel, her funeral, remembered en passant,

10.IreneFassett, Irene Pearl Pearl Fassett (1900–28), born in Paddington, London, had been TSE’s secretary at The Criterion. She died of pulmonary tuberculosis on 28 July 1928, aged 27.

Flint, Frank Stuart ('F. S.'), and Hulme, in Criterion inner-circle, sketched for EH, at Monro's funeral, and Dobrée give TSE farewell lunch, accompanies TSE to music hall,

2.F. S. FlintFlint, Frank Stuart ('F. S.') (1885–1960), English poet and translator: see Biographical Register.

Hodgson, Ralph, debates religion with TSE, seeks introduction to TSE, talks dogs with TSE, TSE takes to, an afternoon's conversation with, further discussion of dogs, at Monro's funeral, his Bull Terrier in disgrace, elegised on departure, exchanges walking-sticks with TSE, reveals intention to propose to Miss Bollinger, bears Cats away to Wisconsin, 'The Song of Honour',
see also Hodgsons, the

4.RalphHodgson, Ralph Hodgson (1871–1962), Yorkshire-born poet; fond friend of TSE: see Biographical Register.

Joyce, James, appears suddenly in London, admired and esteemed by TSE, takes flat in Kensington, lunches with TSE at fish shop, gets on with Osbert Sitwell, GCF on, consumes TSE's morning, dines in company chez Eliot, obstinately unbusinesslike, bank-draft ordered for, indebted to Harriet Weaver, writes to TSE about daughter, his place in history, evening with Lewis, Vanderpyl and, TSE appreciates loneliness of, TSE's excuse for visiting Paris, insists on lavish Parisian dinner, on the phone to the F&F receptionist, TSE's hairdresser asks after, defended by TSE at UCD, for which TSE is attacked, qua poet, his Miltonic ear, requires two F&F directors' attention, anecdotalised by Jane Heap, part of TSE's Paris itinerary, in Paris, strolls with TSE, and David Jones, and EP's gift of shoes, his death lamented, insufficiently commemorated, esteemed by Hugh Walpole, TSE's prose selection of, Indian audience addressed on, TSE opens exhibition dedicated to, TSE on the Joyce corpus, TSE on his letters to, Anna Livia Plurabelle, Joyce's recording of, Dubliners, taught in English 26, Ulysses, modern literature undiscussable without, Harold Monro's funeral calls to mind, its true perversity, likened to Gulliver's Travels, F&F negotiating for, 'Work in Progress' (afterwards Finnegans Wake), negotiations over, conveyed to London by Jolas, 'very troublesome', new MS delivered by Madame Léon,
see also Joyces, the

1.JamesJoyce, James Joyce (1882–1941), Irish novelist, playwright, poet; author of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922), Finnegans Wake (1939).

'Modern Dilemma, The', and educational broadcasting generally, being composed, receives unlikely praise, TSE against turning into book, approved by EH, earns TSE 60 guineas,
Monro, Harold, part of Hulme's circle, comes with Flint to supper, described for EH, visited in nursing home, obliged with Poetry Bookshop reading, now in hospital, still in nursing home, from which he returns, inveighs against Aldington, needs another operation, TSE on the death of, his funeral,

6.Harold MonroMonro, Harold (1879–1932), poet, editor, publisher, bookseller: see Biographical Register.

Sitwell, Edith, TSE likens EH's portrait to, which displeases EH, which likeness TSE presently disclaims, shockingly altered, now seems more herself, brings Pavel Tchelitchew to tea, to tea on New Year's Day, at Harold Monro's funeral, dragoons TSE into poetry reading, at which she is rated, at odds with Dorothy Wellesley, at Poetry Reading for China, sends TSE whisky in hospital,
see also Sitwells, the

2.EdithSitwell, Edith Sitwell (1887–1964), poet, biographer, anthologist, novelist: see Biographical Register.