Emily Hale to T. S. Eliot
Copenhagen,
Denmark
Youtravels, trips and plansEH's 1959 tour of Scandinavia;j4funded by bequest from cousin;a1 will naturally be much surprised to hear from me at last, and especially from this city of Copenhagen.
ISmith CollegeEH invites TSE to speak at;d1 write on behalf of Smith College; the chairman of the speakers committee of the Smith College Annual Drive for Scholarships has heard you were coming within the year to the States; sheDrew, Elizabeth A.;a1 has also heard from Elizabeth Drew1 that I know you; hence she asks me to add a word of personal appeal to help persuade you to accept the Smith College invitation. I know no further details of this benefit, and I also wrote Miss Johns (the chairman) that your decision alone would be the only answer to any persuasion from friends. But, as I also told her, I care enough about helping scholarships to [do] what small bit I can in Smith’s interests.
As to my travelling with a bequest left me by Mrs David Atwood (Cousin Margaret to E.H.H.) I invited my Andover friend Mrs Chipman to go with me on this three week Scandinavian tour which ends here Saturday. A swell party of eight women with a fine Norwegian woman as guide, spent ten days in Norway before coming to Stockholm and now Copenhagen. She and I fly to Paris on Saturday for a week before returning to the U.S.A Aug. 23. I shall reach Northampton the 24 or 25. The Norwegian fjords and mountains were superb and I loved each day. The cities appeal to me less, as usual.
IEliot, Esmé Valerie (née Fletcher, TSE's second wife);c8 hope you and Valerie are well. IEliot, Theresa Garrett (TSE's sister-in-law)visits England;h6 am sure Theresa had great satisfaction in going to England earlier.
FromGeorge, Ruthdies;a8 the long ago Scripps days I had read yesterday that the sensitive [illegible] Ruth George died peacefully last month; my generous friend Miss Rosing, who did much for me two years ago, has gone also.
You need not answer this unless you feel like it, Tom.
1.ElizabethDrew, Elizabeth A. A. Drew (1887–1965): author, critic and lecturer, taught English at Cambridge University, 1916–19, 1934–7, before emigrating to the USA, where she was a professor of English at Smith College, Northampton, 1946–61. Her several books include T. S. Eliot: The Design of His Poetry (1949).
1.ElizabethDrew, Elizabeth A. A. Drew (1887–1965): author, critic and lecturer, taught English at Cambridge University, 1916–19, 1934–7, before emigrating to the USA, where she was a professor of English at Smith College, Northampton, 1946–61. Her several books include T. S. Eliot: The Design of His Poetry (1949).
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.
2.RuthGeorge, Ruth George (1880–1959), Associate Professor of English, Scripps College, Claremont, California, had become a close friend of EH at Scripps in 1932–4. EH was to donate thirty-two inscribed books to Scripps; five inscribed items to Princeton University Library.