Theresa Eliot to Valerie Eliot
DearEliot, Theresa Garrett (TSE's sister-in-law)on TSE not marrying EH;i2 Valerie:
OnHale, Emilyrelationship with TSE;w9TSE's reasons against marrying;c5 theEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother);m4 evening of the day Henry’s Funeral was held when Tom and I were having dinner alone in my flat he began to talk about Emily Hale, having gone to see her at the home of one of her friends [Dorothy Elsmith] down on the cape. Henry died on May fifth and the funeral was several days later, so this talk was on, say, the ninth. He said ‘She took it very quietly. She had not had the letter I wrote her after Vivienne’s death (January of the same year, 1947). ‘I couldn’t Marry [sic] her. I would have to move to the Country. She is such an actress you can’t tell how sincere she is. I have never talked so freely with any one. IEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister)TSE to Theresa on;i3 adore Marian, but I couldn’t tell her things. I could not go thru with it. I’d kill myself.’1 He said never before had his letters been lost.
IEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother)buried in Garrett family lot;m5 took Henry’s ashes out to Louisville and had them buried in my Garrett family lot, as Henry wanted, and returned home in a few days. Tom stayed with me for about three weeks. Soon after my return Tom went out to Andover to see Emily, expecting to stay to supper, and I was nervous about his going, and glad when he came back, not having been asked to stay to supper. I know Emily’s friends, two of them were advising her how to hold on to Tom.
VivienneEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood)Theresa remembers;e5 was of unsound mind. Emily had a mental spell about 1945 and was in Boston City Hospital. HerHale, Emily Jose Milliken (EH's mother)Theresa on;d4 Mother was in a mental home for years, and I think Tom felt sorry for Emily’s having this worry. Oh yes, he said if he married Emily there would be her aunt to put up with. Her letters (Emily’s) were not interesting, just complaints about her aunt. He said that night that Vivienne was not a lady.
AnotherHale, Emilyreligious beliefs and practices;x1the issue of communion;a8 thing that Tom did not like was Emily’s going to the Episcopal Church and taking Communion when she had never been confirmed. He did not speak of this to me, but Emily told me.2
Emily Hale died on 12 October 1969, at the age of 77, in Concord, Massachusetts.
1.See too E.W.F. Tomlin to Valerie Eliot, 8 Oct. 1984: ‘I enclose my Tablet review …
‘The reference to Emily Hale and Tom’s refusal of marriage is based on what Teresa [sic] Eliot told me apropos of his visit to the States just after her husband’s death. He informed her one day that he would be away for a spell, as he had something to “get over with” (I remember so well that phrase); and when he returned, he said that Emily had taken it more calmly than he had anticipated’ (EVE).
2.Valerie Eliot replied to Theresa Eliot, 9 May 1969: ‘I very much appreciated what you wrote to me about Emily and will put the letters with other important papers’ (CC EVE).
3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: see Biographical Register.
1.Marian/MarionEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister) Cushing Eliot (1877–1964), fourth child of Henry Ware Eliot and Charlotte Eliot: see Biographical Register.