Eleanor Hinkley to T. S. Eliot
Cambridge, Mass.
YesterdayHale, EmilyEleanor Hinkley reports on;u3 Emily had dinner with me, having arrived by air in Boston, Thursday. I had started a letter to you before I knew when she was coming, but after hearing, I decided to wait a little longer, until she came. It was very strange, but almost everything I had anticipated has turned out to be the case. She had thought she could pick up the old life in Camden [sc. Campden], which she had genuinely loved for its own sake. But she couldn’t. Not just because of the climate, which was very bad, but the being alone so much and too tired when she started and so uncertain of what was ahead of her on her return to America. Finally she had a slight nervous upset and went to the local doctor, who was very sympathetic, but said she should go home. IHale, Emilyas teacher;w1EH admits to being sheltered by;e2 hadAbbot Academy, Andover, MassachusettsEleanor Hinkley on EH at;c2 always thought that she didn’t realize how much the conventual life at Concord and Abbott [sic] gave her a feeling of protection; and as we settled down in the parlor after dinner the first thing she said was: ‘You see I’ve been sheltered all these years, with know[ing] it.’
The burden of oneself is hard to take at times, as everyone is bound to experience sooner or later, and one’s heart must go out to her. But it’s something a lot of people have had to get used to and something that no-one else can do for you. That is her trouble, I’m afraid, just now. She is vainly looking for someone to take the load off her. But actually, if her new life could be slid into, I think she could be very happy with her real social gifts and love of people, living alone. She might even be more happy, and more of a person if she didn’t combine with some other similarly situated woman. Her cousin, it seems, took in an old old lady, earlier in the summer, to take care of, and this was a great disappointment to Emily, who thought she was planning all sorts of trips for herself this winter, was at the same time clinging to the idea that she and her cousin might live together. Then Miss Loring, with whom Emily is staying more at the Vendome, is proving very old and forgetful and lonely herself, so in her present condition it gets on Emily’s nerves. She has other friends too, most of them well-to-do (a conscious aim, I suspect, and of clerical descent). ThereLyman, Elizabeth Van Cortlandt Parker;a3 is her aunt’s friend Mrs Lyman, herKnowles, Sylvia Hathaway;b3 old room-mate at Farmington – Sylvia Knowles – MrsFoss, Mary;a9 Foss, MrsElsmith, Dorothy Olcott;d5 Elsmith andNoyes, Penelope Barker;f2 Penelope, of course. Incidentally Emily was disappointed and indignant that the latter hadn’t asked her to stay with her for a while. But if she had, it would only have postponed the final facing of things, which the sooner she gets at, the better she will be. As she went over them all, thinking out loud, as to whose set-up would be the most comfortable, there was a startling unawareness that they had anything to say about it – a kind of instinctive feeling that she had a claim on anyone who could afford to take her in. It’s part of her condition of course that she leans too heavily, and expects too much. Actually for forty years she had astounding enterprize and independence; and the last thing she has wanted in the past was to be under anyone’s wing. I suspect subconsciously she thinks it will be her house and they will be staying with her. Personally I don’t believe it will take her long when she gets a place somewhere, to be on the crest of the wave again. I told her if she could come to live in Cambridge, she could see me every day.
Well, enough for the present. And as for her not writing again that I quite get now. She was really too tired and nervous … GiveEliot, Esmé Valerie (née Fletcher, TSE's second wife);c5 Valerie a hug and tell her I’ll write a good letter soon.
The Continental is universally held superior to the Commander, which is less residential and more rotarian and also noisy. Personally, I like the dining-room at the Commander a lot better than the Continental. And the taxi stand in front is very convenient. To sum up ‘class vs. solid comfort’. But probably the Con. is better than the Com.
P.S. EmilyAbbot Academy, Andover, MassachusettsEH's retirement from;c3 hadHale, Emilyas teacher;w1retirement from Abbot;e3 a very fine write-up [in the] Andover paper, on leaving the school, which helped her a lot.1
1.‘SorryHale, Emilyas teacher;w1retirement from Abbot;e3 to Say Goodbye’, AbbotHale, Emilyas teacher;w1according to Abbot Academy tribute;e4n Academy Bulletin 25: 1 (Oct. 1957), 5: ‘Miss Emily Hale has this year retired from Abbot, and will live for a time in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, England. During her nine years at the school she has contributed greatly to the Speech and Drama Department. Extremely interesting plays have been produced under her guidance, and many Abbot girls speak with more confidence and grace because of her teaching.
‘Her skill in casting the school plays was widely recognized and resulted in outstanding performances. She worked as carefully with the girls having minor roles or backstage duties as she did with the “stars”.
‘She has a particular concern for the place of speech and drama within the whole framework of secondary school education, and has worked hard for a wider recognition of the importance of this form of training.
‘Miss Hale has introduced many girls at Abbot to a variety of cultural interests, of a kind to broaden, deepen, and enrich their experiences. Her sympathetic concern for the students as individuals has won her a great group of affectionate friends, who will wish her much future happiness.’
EH wrote to Jane Sullivan, Alumnae Office, Abbot School, 16 Nov. 1957: ‘Only a week ago, soon after my unsuccessful trip to England, did I see the first number of the Abbot bulletin, and I was overwhelmed by the very generous, kind paragraphs about me. I could scarcely believe my eyes, nor realize it was about E.H. If you are responsible I thank you many times; if someone else wrote the more than generous words, please give my thanks to an unknown friend. I cannot, alas, thank you, nor the photographer for the picture. I think it is a very wishy washy sentimental looking woman! I am staying with a kind friend in Boston until I can find further temporary quarters for the winter. I can still be addressed at Andover as mail is forwarded. / Cordially yours Emily Hale’ (Archives & Special Collections, Phillips Academy).
In Jan. 1959, EH made a contribution to the school development fund.
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.
4.TSEElsmiths, theseminal Woods Hole stay with;a1Elsmith, Dorothy Olcott
1.MaryFoss, Mary Foss was an old friend of EH: they were contemporaries at Miss Porter’s School, Farmington, CT, where they acted in plays and were members of a Shakespeare club. EH would often visit the Fosses at their home in Concord, and she taught the daughter, Sally Foss, while at Concord Academy.
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.
2.SylviaKnowles, Sylvia Hathaway Hathaway Knowles (1891–1979), of New Bedford, Mass. – a descendant of a long-established merchant and business family based there – was a friend and room-mate of EH from their schooldays at Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Vermont.
5.ElizabethLyman, Elizabeth Van Cortlandt Parker Van Cortlandt Parker (1883–1953), wife of Ronald T. Lyman (son of a textile magnate), she was active in the arts and for some years President of the Boston Athenaeum. They lived at 39 Beacon Street.
12.PenelopeNoyes, Penelope Barker Barker Noyes (1891–1977), who was descended from settlers of the Plymouth Colony, lived in a historic colonial house (built in 1894 for her father James Atkins Noyes) at 1 Highland Street, Cambridge, MA. Unitarian. She was a close friend of EH.