[c/o MissAmericaNew Bedford, Massachusetts;f8EH's holidays in;a1 SylviaHale, Emilyvacations in New Bedford;b4 Knowles, 47 Morelands Terrace, New Bedford, Mass.]
I am in a very penitent mood in consequence of having failed to write this letter yesterday, and hope that I may have pardon. My morning was rather broken up, and I postponed beginning the letter until after lunch. ButMorley, Frank VigorCriterion lunch in company with;a7 MorleyRead, Herbert;a5 andDobrée, Bonamy;a5 IWheen, Arthur;a2 gave aHodgson, Ralph;b2 lunch to Read, Dobrée, Wheen and Hodgson, Dobrée and Read having come up to town expressly for the Criterion meeting in the evening; and after lunch – rather a long one – I found that Read had nothing to do and nowhere to go; and as I very rarely see him now that he is a Professor at Edinburgh, and shall not see him again for a year, I felt all the more obliged to devote the rest of the afternoon to him. I still hoped that I might be able to slip out of the party and write a few lines in my room: but that would have been rather conspicuous; new men kept coming in whom I had to speak to; and as it was the last meeting – at least, the last for a year that I shall attend – I was the further obliged. It went off very well, I think, and was one of the largest we have had; butalcoholtoo much sherry;a9 I am feeling very tired after talking to so many people and drinking so much sherry, and not really in the humour to go to a picture exhibition this afternoon, andUnderhill, Evelynreception at the house of;a7 to a reception at Mrs. Stuart Moore’s afterwards. (IThorp, Willard;a9 invited Thorp to come last night, but he had another engagement).
Itravels, trips and plansTSE's 1933 westward tour to Scripps;a8and TSE's need to lecture;a2 have no further news of any engagements in the West, or anywhere. I shall certainly not tie myself to dates during the Christmas period, until I have settled dates with you. I don’t want to talk more than the minimum of times necessary to justify my appearance in California. ItScripps College, Claremont;b4 will be a great honour to be your guest at a dinner at Scripps (a small dinner, I trust). But the next step in my western arrangements depends upon you; and I trust that by October you will be able to tell me where you will be and when. I thinktravels, trips and plansTSE's 1933 westward tour to Scripps;a8TSE's itinerary;a4 that if I spend Christmas in Cambridge, leaveAmericaSt. Louis, Missouri;h4;a4 the next day for St. Louis, I shall be ready to proceed further by January 1st, and await my orders.
Itravels, trips and plansEH's 1932 summer holidays;a3;a4 am a little uncertain where to address this; yesterday I would have posted to Brimmer Street, but I think (after studying your itinerary as well as I can) best to post now to New Bedford. IAmericaMaine;f6its coast remembered by TSE;a1 amAmericaCastine, Maine;d6EH holidays in;a1 glad you have had a visit to Castine; I know the place, and all that coast pretty well, and I think there is nothing lovelier. And will you get any bathing and sailing while you are in New Bedford, I wonder?
IWarren, Austin;a2 am sorry I never sent Mr. Austin Warren to see you, please forgive me; I suppose I did not think him very interesting, but he seemed an amiable and serious fellow. IEliot, Revd Frederick May (TSE's first cousin)qua preacher;a2 was interested to hear your report of Frederick as a preacher, as I have never heard him. He is, I believe, very much liked by his congregation in St. Paul. He has recently adopted one (or two) small children.1 HisEliot, Elizabeth (TSE's cousin)TSE's first impression of;a1 wife, whom I hardly knew, struck me as rather dull.
AsHale, Emilycorrespondence with TSE;w3EH suggests entrusting to Willard Thorp;c6 for my letters, they are your property, and their fate must be decided by you. I confess to a feeling of regret (not rising from vanity) if these poor testimonies of the most important matter in my life should perish altogether, though they obviously should be withheld from the public for a good many years – even apart from ourselves, there are, I think, and will continue to be, from time to time, references to quite outside people which could not discreetly or kindly appear during their lifetimes. ButThorp, WillardEH thinks of entrusting letters to;b1 you may entrust them to Thorp, or to any person who has your confidence and whom you trust, providing (I suggest) that that person makes suitable provision for their disposition in the event of his or her sudden demise. I wonder if they would say ‘what dull letters he wrote!’ or ‘why did he never let himself go, in his correspondence?’2
IChristianitydeath and afterlife;b4and cremation;a3 have thought of cremation myself, asEliot, Henry Ware (TSE's father)was cremated;a4 bothEliot, Charlotte Champe Stearns (TSE's mother)was cremated;a6 my father and my mother were cremated; andAmericaSt. Louis, Missouri;h4possible destination for TSE's ashes;a5 perhaps in that way I could be transported to be with their ashes in St. Louis. I had a prejudice against it until recently, but it is being increasingly practiced in the Church, and I believe even the Church of Rome is no longer wholly against it.
ICharles Eliot Norton Lectures (afterwards The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism);a6 hope during August, to be able to take things more easily, and give my time to outlining lectures. Perhaps my letters become duller as the approaching prospect of seeing you makes writing seem an unsatisfactory form of speech. Adieu, my dove.
1.Cousin Frederick had told TSE on 21 July 1931 that he and Elizabeth had adopted an eight-week-old child named Richard (‘Ricky’). ‘He is as entrancing and as time-absorbing as any baby.’
2.Cf. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock:
(They will say: ‘How his hair is growing thin!’)
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin –
(They will say: ‘But how his arms and legs are thin!’)
3.Bonamy DobréeDobrée, Bonamy (1891–1974), scholar and editor: see Biographical Register.
6.CharlotteEliot, Charlotte Champe Stearns (TSE's mother) Champe Stearns Eliot (1843–1929): see Biographical Register.
2.RevdEliot, Revd Frederick May (TSE's first cousin) Frederick May Eliot (1889–1958) – first cousin – Unitarian clergyman and author: see Biographical Register.
4.RalphHodgson, Ralph Hodgson (1871–1962), Yorkshire-born poet; fond friend of TSE: see Biographical Register.
4.FrankMorley, Frank Vigor Vigor Morley (1899–1980), American publisher and author; a founding editor of F&F, 1929–39: see Biographical Register.
3.Herbert ReadRead, Herbert (1893–1968), English poet and literary critic: see Biographical Register.
1.Margaret Thorp, née Farrand (1891–1970), contemporary and close friend of EH; noted author and biographer. WillardThorp, Willard Thorp (1899–1990) was a Professor of English at Princeton University. See Biographical Register. See further Lyndall Gordon, Hyacinth Girl, 126–8, 158–9.
1.EvelynUnderhill, Evelyn Underhill (1875–1941), spiritual director and writer on mysticism and the spiritual life: see Biographical Register.
3.AustinWarren, Austin Warren (1899–1986), literary critic, author and educator. Educated at Wesleyan University, Harvard, and Princeton, he taught from 1926 at Boston University. In 1930–1, sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies, he was researching in London, where he was introduced to TSE. His works included Alexander Pope as Critic and Humanist (1929); Richard Crashaw: A Study in the Baroque Sensibility (1939); and, with René Wellek, The Theory of Literature (1949). He later taught at the University of Michigan, 1948–68.
ArthurWheen, Arthur Wheen (1897–1971), librarian and translator, grew up in Sydney, Australia, and came to Europe with the Australian Expeditionary Force in WW1 (he received the Military Cross ‘for some incredible act of valour in the last war, which provoked a temporary breakdown,’ as TSE said). A Rhodes Scholar at New College, Oxford, 1920–3, he worked in the Library of the Victoria & Albert Museum; as Keeper, 1939–62. He translated novels relating to WW1, winning praise for his version of Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front (1929); and he wrote a novella, Two Masters (1924, 1929). TSE wrote of him: ‘He’s completely honest, and one of the most silent men I know.’ FVM thought his modest friend ‘the best critic I know, bar none’ (to Morley Kennerley, 5 July 1933). See We talked of other things: The life and letters of Arthur Wheen 1897–1971, ed. Tanya Crothers (2011).