[41 Brimmer St., Boston]
YourBarrie, Sir James Matthew ('J. M.')The Old Lady Shows Her Medals;b3 letter of April 21st arrived this morning – youHale, Emilyas actor;v8in The Old Lady Shows Her Medals;b5 say nothing about theBarrie, Sir James Matthew ('J. M.')EH in play by;a5 play (The Old Lady Shows Her Medals?)1 but I know that you must be very busy, and am grateful for your writing as much as you do. My'Modern Dilemma, The'earns TSE 60 guineas;a7 Broadcastfinances (TSE's);a5 receipts were sixty guineas for the four talks: which is considered pretty good pay here – I am still being tempted to republish them; and if I can write a satisfactory appendix I may still do so. But I am not anxious to do any writing at present; afterSelected Essaysputs TSE off writing;a3 toiling through the proofs of my monstrous huge book of essays I feel sated and over-written. AndCharles Eliot Norton Lectures (afterwards The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism)contemplated;a3 I really must begin blocking out a series of lectures (and also thinking what the devil I shall talk about when it comes to the second half of the year and I must lecture twice a week on Modern English Literature. I wish you would think of a subject for six or eight lectures for me; also, if you have attended any of the Norton lectures, tell me what the audiences are like and what they like. I expect it is largely an audience of old ladies and gentlemen, such as attend Lowell Lectures.
IHale, Emilycorrespondence with TSE;w3TSE's horror of sounding sermonic;c3 wish you would not refer to my humble little comments and counsels as ‘sermons’! all they amount to is my reflection upon my own experience and struggles; and when I feel that there is a parallel between your life and mine I am impelled to talk about myself. It is good for me to hear from you sometimes about your own troubles with yourself, and I am glad when you do; [sic] otherwise I should be likely (am inclined) to think of you as rather more than human, and as having dismissed from your thought and feelings everything in life except the necessary and the possible. How should I know what a woman is like, anyway, who have never had the confidences and intimacy of an adult woman? Not that I don’t distrust most generalisations about ‘men’ and ‘women’. But perhaps you on the other hand may assume sometimes that I have a much wider knowledge and experience of the world than I have. In different circumstances I might have had, perhaps; but perhaps in those different circumstances I might have had still less. In some respects my life has been a very narrow and confined one; and in default of some of the experiences of which I seem to myself to have been capable, I am conscious of being in some ways (and probably always will be) very immature.
TonightCriterion, Thefirst contributors' meeting since Monro's death;a5 a Criterion meeting – here – the first since Harold’s death; I always dread the fatigue of it. V. isEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood);b5 goingThorps, theinvite VHE to supper;b7 I believe to supper with the Thorps by herself – IEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood)her driving;b3 hope she will not get into any trouble with the driving – but I shall fetch her away some time after ten. I should have asked him to come otherwise, but will ask him the next time, in June.
IO'Neill, EugeneTSE's unformed opinion on;a1 know very little about O’Neill’s work;2 I have read a few, but it is impossible to form a just opinion without seeing several of them played. ‘All God’s Chillun’ impressed me very much, and showed much insight into abnormality; there was another about some people on a New England farm, which struck me as a display of exaggerated and forced violence.3 I should imagine that he has great dramatic skill, but that brutal violence often makes do for the force of real profundity. OnSadler's Wells TheatreMidsummer Night's Dream at;a3 Saturday we go to see ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at Sadlers’ Wells; I have never seen it played before, and am looking forward to it.
Therespringennervates;a6 were a few days of warm sunny weather here – the first warm days are always enervating; now the weather has returned to its usual tepid chill, and it is raining. IEnglandLondon;h1rain preferable in;a9 rather prefer it to rain, in London, I think.
And have you formed any plans for your summer yet? I hope that you will be somewhere where you can rest and bathe and keep out of doors, and do no work; and when do you begin the term at Scripps?
1.J. M. Barrie, The Old Lady Shows Her Medals (play, 1928).
2.EugeneO'Neill, Eugene O’Neill (1888–1953), American playwright; author of works including Anna Christie (1920); The Emperor Jones (1920); The Hairy Ape (1922); All God’s Chillun Got Wings (1924); Desire Under the Elms (1924); Mourning Becomes Electra (1931); The Iceman Cometh (1940); Long Day’s Journey into Night (1941, 1956). Nobel Prize, 1936.
3.Desire Under the Elms.
5.SirBarrie, Sir James Matthew ('J. M.') James Barrie, Bt, OM (1860–1937), Scottish novelist and dramatist; world-renowned for Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up (1904).
2.EugeneO'Neill, Eugene O’Neill (1888–1953), American playwright; author of works including Anna Christie (1920); The Emperor Jones (1920); The Hairy Ape (1922); All God’s Chillun Got Wings (1924); Desire Under the Elms (1924); Mourning Becomes Electra (1931); The Iceman Cometh (1940); Long Day’s Journey into Night (1941, 1956). Nobel Prize, 1936.