Eleanor Holmes Hinkley to Valerie Eliot
DearestHinkley, Eleanor Holmes (TSE's first cousin)engineers correspondence between EVE and EH;f9 Valerie. IEliot, Esmé Valerie (née Fletcher, TSE's second wife)urged to correspond with EH;d8 am afraid you will be disappointed when you get this letter after waiting so long but the pain in my fingers has so increased that I would not be writing at all if it weren’t for a bit of news I thought you should have. YouBrowne, Elliott Martinseeks Family Reunion MS from EH;g6 probably know thatFamily Reunion, TheMartin Browne seeks MS of;k2 Martin Brown [sc. Browne] is planning to write a book on the creating of the plays, but I wondered if you knew that he has written to Emily in regard to a manuscript copy of ‘The Family Reunion’ which contains Tom’s marginal notes on Emily’s verbal comments on the play taken down by him as she talked. In Martin Brown’s letter he tells her about the book, reminds her of the manuscript and says that he has written Harvard for a photostat of it. (youEliot, Theresa Garrett (TSE's sister-in-law);i1 know, no doubt, thatEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother)as curator of Eliotana;e9 TomEliot Houserepository for Eliotana;b8 later gave it to Emily who gave it to the Eliot collection long ago when Henry and Theresa were assembling it in Eliot House.) Emily was utterly taken aback, and wrote to Martin Brown that her comments were of no account and that she didn’t wish them to be used, or her name even mentioned.1 She also read Martin Brown’s letter aloud to me and said that frankly she was very surprised at it. She couldn’t have been more sincere and straight forward.. I told her that actually the matter rested in your (Valerie’s) hands as Tom’s executor and nothing could be published of this sort without your consent. There is no question that Emily has changed and has now a real fear of what the literary hounds would do if they caught the scent! I suggested that she write to you. And at least start a conventional acquaintance and perhaps get to know each other. Not to know her is in itself a kind of provocation to curiosity, for those who are perpetually on the watch for gossip. But, my dear, I am not trying to force you into anything that is alien to you. I am only suggesting that the time is ripe for it and that there could be practical advantages to it.
MondayHale, Emilywrites to EVE;v4 morning. I had to leave this unfinished yesterday, and now Emily has just telephoned to say she has written to you and is glad she has!! She hasn’t apparently told you about Martin Brown, but she knew I was doing that.
I literally can’t write any more, just at present, so good-bye, my dear. I love and admire you with all my heart and hope you had a good time with my darling Barby. She was crazy about your mother!
If I were you I wouldn’t mention any of the enclosed to Martin Brown as it could easily start a hornet’s nest of trouble.* Just find out on your own about the annotated copy of Family Reunion which he asked Harvard to be photostated.
*And I can’t write any more letters for a while!2
1.E. Martin Browne to EH (9 Church Green, Concord, Mass.), 11 Nov. 1966: ‘Dear Emily … Thank you … for all you say about the T.S.E. matter. I entirely understand that you would want to remain in the background, without personal mention, in my account, in all the circumstances. And I am very happy that you think of stretching out the hand of friendship to Valerie: I believe that you will find it taken, as it deserves to be’ (Houghton).
Cf. Sara Fitzgerald, ‘Reconsidering Emily Hale’, The Journal of the T. S. Eliot Society (U.K.), 2020, 52.
2.Added by hand.
4.E. MartinBrowne, Elliott Martin Browne (1900–80), English director and producer, was to direct the first production of Murder in the Cathedral: see Biographical Register.
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.
3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: see Biographical Register.
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.