[41 Brimmer St., Boston]
ICobden-Sanderson, Sallyand TSE's Ausonia passage;a1 havetravels, trips and plansTSE's 1932–3 year in America;a7TSE's itinerary;a8 practically decided to accept Sally’s suggestion of the Ausonia for September 17, arriving in Montreal on the 26 and in Boston either the 26th or 27th, I can’t be sure which: especially as she tells me that she has managed to get me a single berth cabin, which makes all the difference to me; I loathe being shut up for a week with a stranger – sometimes they want to talk, and often they stay up late, or they may drink too much, or be seasick. So now that I have made my plans, I am very eager to know yours. It is nearly time that you started your summer holiday, and you must be very much in need of it. Heresummerintolerable when hot for long;a3, the weather has been blazing hot again; and the climate is such that when you are used to it, more than a week of uninterrupted sun becomes intolerable. I am glad that I am going to be in America in the cold months, starting with October which may be very lovely in New England, rather than in the summer: Isummerunthinkable in America;a4 should probably find an American summer very difficult now. ThoughPeters, HaroldTSE longs to sail with;a6 if I were free to consult my own wishes, IAmericaMaine;f6its coast remembered by TSE;a1 should certainly have arranged to come now, and get Harold Peters or one of my other nautical friends to share a boat on the coast of Maine for the rest of the summer – if I could I should come over and spend every summer that way. But as it is, I still cannot believe that in exactly three months I shall be on the water, pointing in your direction.
IPerkinses, the;a6 am sorry to think of your aunt and uncle having left, and of you being almost alone in that big house in Brimmer Street; but I cannot ever afford to think for more than a minute, my dearest girl, of the loneliness of your life in general. It may be that next winter, when you have got used to it and to the people, the new surroundings with no associations and memories, and a regular routine of work, may be happier for you than Boston: excepting only the deprivation of the few people there who mean much to you.
YoungDavies, Hugh Sykes;a1 Hugh Sykes Davies,1 one of my ablest young men, is waiting downstairs to take me out to lunch. YesterdayMorrell, Lady Ottoline;c4 was a busy day, with a teaparty for Ottoline’s birthday on the lawns back of Gower Street, behind her house; not very many people, butde la Mare, Waltertalks to TSE at tea-party;a1 I was glad to have a talk with Walter de la Mare, who is very rarely in town nowadays, andMirrlees, Hopesketched for EH;a1 withHarrison, Jane Ellenand Hope Mirrlees;a1 Hope Mirrlees who was John [sc. Jean] Harrison’s favourite pupil and is prodigiously erudite;2 andStephens, James;a4 finally with James Stephens who gave me some useful advice from his experience in lecturing in America. AndCulpin, Rexiintroduces fellow-Hungarian to the Eliots;a3 in the evening Rexi, thedogs'Polly' (the Eliots' Yorkshire Terrier);c6barks at Hungarian language;a3 Hungarian girl,3 brought another Hungarian to see us, and made the dog bark violently by talking their native language. TomorrowFabers, theFaber children to tea chez Eliot;a5 a most formidable undertaking: theEliots, the T. S.host the Faber children to tea;d7 three Faber children are coming to tea, and weEnglish Speaking Union;a1 go to dine at the English Speaking Union with Miss Katie Spencer.
1.HughDavies, Hugh Sykes Sykes Davies (1909–84), author and critic; Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge: see Biographical Register
2.HopeMirrlees, Hope Mirrlees (1887–1978), British poet, novelist, translator and biographer, was to become a close friend of TSE: see Biographical Register.
JaneHarrison, Jane Ellen Ellen Harrison (1850–1928), classical scholar specialising in Ancient Greek religion and mythology; taught at Newnham College, Cambridge, 1898–1922. Works include Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (1903); Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion (1912). In her later years she lived with Mirrlees, her ‘spiritual daughter’.
3.RexiCulpin, Rexi Culpin, wife of Jack Culpin (surviving son of TSE’s old friend Jan Culpin).
1.TSE’sCobden-Sanderson, Sally friend Sally Cobden-Sanderson was working for Hutchinson’s Agency (‘for Domestic Help Male and Female’), Regent Street – a firm which also catered for travel arrangements.
3.RexiCulpin, Rexi Culpin, wife of Jack Culpin (surviving son of TSE’s old friend Jan Culpin).
1.HughDavies, Hugh Sykes Sykes Davies (1909–84), author and critic; Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge: see Biographical Register
4.Walterde la Mare, Walter de la Mare (1873–1956), poet, novelist, short story writer, worked for the Statistics Department of the Anglo-American Oil Company, 1890–1908, before being freed to become a freelance writer by a £200 royal bounty negotiated by Henry Newbolt. He wrote many popular works: poetry including The Listeners (1912) and Peacock Pie (1913); novels including Henry Brocken (1904) and Memoirs of a Midget (1921); anthologies including Come Hither (1923). Appointed OM, 1953; CH, 1948. F&F brought out several of his books including Collected Rhymes and Verses (1942) and Collected Poems (1948); and TSE wrote ‘To Walter de la Mare’ for A Tribute to Walter de la Mare (1948). See further Theresa Whistler, Imagination of the Heart: The Life of Walter de la Mare (1993).
JaneHarrison, Jane Ellen Ellen Harrison (1850–1928), classical scholar specialising in Ancient Greek religion and mythology; taught at Newnham College, Cambridge, 1898–1922. Works include Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (1903); Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion (1912). In her later years she lived with Mirrlees, her ‘spiritual daughter’.
2.HopeMirrlees, Hope Mirrlees (1887–1978), British poet, novelist, translator and biographer, was to become a close friend of TSE: see Biographical Register.
4.LadyMorrell, Lady Ottoline Ottoline Morrell (1873–1938), hostess and patron: see Biographical Register.
6.HaroldPeters, Harold Peters (1888–1943), close friend of TSE at Harvard, 1906–9. After graduation, he worked in real estate, and saw active service in the Massachusetts Naval Militia during WW1, and on leaving the navy he spent most of the rest of his life at sea. Leon M. Little, ‘Eliot: A Reminiscence’, Harvard Advocate, 100: 3.4 (Fall 1966), 33: ‘[TSE’sPeters, Haroldas TSE's quondam sailing companion;a2n] really closest friend was Harold Peters, and they were an odd but a very interesting pair. Peters and Eliot spent happy hours sailing together, sometimes in thick fog, off the Dry Salvages. In 1932 Peters sailed round the world for two years as skipper of an 85-foot auxiliary schooner, Pilgrim, having previously participated in the transatlantic race from Newport to Plymouth, and in the Fastnet Race. In 1943 he died after falling from a motor-boat that was in process of being hoisted into a dry dock at Marblehead.
7.JamesStephens, James Stephens (?1882–1950), Irish novelist and poet; close friend of OM.