[c/o Sylvia Knowles, 47 Morelands Terrace, New Bedford]
No letter by this morning, and I do not expect one this week; for I must allow, not only for the further delay from seaside or country places, but for your not having, while on visits, the leisure or privacy to write letters when you otherwise would. YetHale, EmilyTSE fears accident befalling;b5 I am always anxious about you when you are moving about – not that I visualise any particular risks of railway accidents! – and am the more painfully aware of how little there would be to attach me to this world, beyond just the sense of duty, if you were out of it. I shall certainly expect irregular communications from you between now and the end of August, and then silence for nearly a month, whenHale, Emilycorrespondence with TSE;w3TSE hopes to telephone;b5 I hope it will quickly be broken by hearing your voice on the telephone. After the beginning of September, it is possible that I may not be able to take enough time here to write more than half a dozen words; but I should like to send a brief anonymous wire on my arrival in Montreal.
Since I wrote last, Saturday and Monday have been very full days. OnEliots, the T. S.at James Stephens's party;e2 Saturday we motored out toStephens, Jamesgives tea-party;a6 tea at the James Stephens’s – they live in a remote northern suburb. Mrs. Stephens had given me directions for the most complicated route, so that I lost the way twice; it was a sweltering day, and by the time we arrived there was not much left of me but bones & perspiration. FoundMonro, Alida (née Klementaski);a6 rather a large party, all complete strangers, except Alida Monro, in the garden. MostlyAllgood, Sara;a1 Irish or theatrical or both – Sara Allgood for instance.1 Stephens’sPage, AustinHocus Pocus;a2 son2 has a walking-on part and two lines in a play which has just ended its run; and two or three of the actors in that were present: twoJanssen, Walter;a1 Germans, including one Walter Janssen3 who was the leading man in the play (‘Hocus-Pocus’ it was called; the author was there two [sc. too], aPage, Austin;a1 long lean grey man named Austin Page, of whom I had never heard).4 After tea a few turns: Sara Allgood recites very prettily, the German sang Hamburg sailors (songs to a guitar[)], and one of the Irish ladies sang Spanish songs to the same. My great experience came at the end; whenLion, Leon MarksTSE mistaken for;a1 the elderly lady just mentioned came up to me earnestly, and said: ‘I should like to know how you pronounce your name: is it Leon M. Lion (giving an English pronunciation) or Léon M. Lion (French pr.)’ AsWaste Land, TheTSE forced to recite at garden-party;a6 I had been compelled, much against my will, to read a part of The Waste Land (I hate reading my own verse to strangers), it was all the more poignant. Leon M. Lion (but you probably have heard of him) is one of the best known theatrical producers in London, and had produced the play in question.
WeGarrick TheatreHocus Pocus;a1 left Alida, and then IEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood);c1 discovered that they had pressed on V. tickets for the performance of ‘Hocus-Pocus’: and as it was the leading actor, and as young Stephens was in the play, she had not wanted to refuse – or perhaps she wanted to go. Anyway, Alida and I didn’t, but there was nothing for it: we got back at 7 and had to leave for the Garrick Theatre at 8. If you ever hear of the play being produced in America, let me tell you that it is the Worst I can remember having seen. The only thing in its favour was a High Moral Tone, and that is something nowadays. It was a play about a struggling German artist in London, of course of immense genius, living in a garret; all the usual jokes about poor artists, dunned by his landlady, comic bailiff, everything complete; a successful exhibition is finally arranged by the right young lady who thought she could paint until the Master told her (not knowing, of course, that the picture was by her, for he was the most kindhearted man breathing) that she couldn’t; she immediately adores him and eventually marries him. IMonro, Alida (née Klementaski)TSE loses bet with;a7 had a bet of sixpence with Alida that she wouldn’t marry him, or rather that he, being poor and humble, would make the Great Renunciation; but I lost the sixpence. All the beautiful phrases possible were used: ‘poor little rich girl’, and ‘you are the eternal Eve’ and (as a consolation for her painting so very badly) ‘your role in life is to BE a Mother!’ IJanssen, Walterin Hocus Pocus;a2 must add that the Janssen played the part very well indeed. I won one bet, however, though there was no money on it; when he sang songs with a guitar in the garden I was sure that he would sing songs in the play, and he did: one at the beginning and one at the end. DoKlein, CharlesThe Music Master;a1 you remember a play in America that had a great run once, called ‘The Music Master’?5 It was on exactly the same level. And of course, there were some comic American millionaires buying pictures. I am depressed about the stage! ButEvans, EdithTSE would endure Evensong for;a4 there is one play going which I do want to see, called ‘Evensong’;6 I believe it is also a very bad play, but that Edith Evans makes something magnificent out of her part, this time a tragic one. I believe that she and you can take very similar rôles.
OnHodgsons, the;a5 Sunday afternoon I had two very welcome hours alone in the flat, afterHaigh-Wood, Rose Esther (TSE's mother-in-law, née Robinson);a7 which Hodgson, Aurelia and the dog Pickwick arrived, and we went on to supper at Mrs. Haigh-Wood’s. OnEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood)arranges large tea-party;c2 Monday V. had aEliots, the T. S.have fifteen to tea;e3 large tea party: fifteen people, but they were not all there at once for long. SomeMorrell, Lady Ottolineat the Eliots' tea party;c6 ofAlport, Dr Erichat the Eliots' tea-party;a5 the usualMirrlees, Hopeat the Eliots' tea-party;a2 peopleGertler, Markat the Eliots' tea-party;a2: OttolineRichardses, theat the Eliots' tea-party;a1, MrsHuxley, Juliette (née Baillot)at the Eliots' tea-party;a1. Cameron, Hope Mirrlees (whom I like very much)[,] Mrs Julian Huxley (Swiss French, but looks thoroughly English), Mark Gertler, the Ivor Richards’s, Erich Alport, and a few others. I was back for it about five, and it went on until seven.
TonightFabers, the;a6 we must dine with the Fabers.7
IEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood)as theatregoer;c3 think that V.’s impressions of a play are always very vague, partly owing to her inability to concentrate on anything, and partly to the fact that her liking the play or not is conditioned by whether she is in a mood to enjoy it beforehand; as her responses seem wholly uncritical, and she usually comes away with a quite mistaken notion of the plot and of the characters.
NowAuden, Wystan Hugh ('W. H.')TSE sends EH Poems;a2 I go to lunch with Wystan Auden – I gave you his first book of poems, didn’t I? IChristianityasceticism, discipline, rigour;a9as salubrious;a5 am rather sleepy, because I got up very early for Mass; but unless I go at least twice a week to Low Mass I feel rather as I do when I have missed my bath.
My dear Lamb, I hope to hear next week that you have been resting, and getting Brown, and in congenial company.
1.SaraAllgood, Sara Allgood (1879–1950), Irish actor.
2.James N. Stephens.
3.WalterJanssen, Walter Janssen (1887–1976), actor and director (noted primarily for his work in film).
4.Hocus Pocus!, by Austin Page, was staged for a month at the Garrick Theatre.
5.The Music Master, a comedy by Charles Klein, opened in New York (dir. David Belasco) in Sept. 1904 and ran for hundreds of performances.
6.Evensong: a play adapted by Edward Knoblock and Beverley Nichols from a novel by Beverley Nichols.
7.The Fabers entertained Frank Morley, Richard de la Mare and the Eliots to dinner in Hampstead.
1.DrAlport, Dr Erich Erich Alport (b. 1903), educated in Germany and at Oxford, was author of Nation und Reich in der politischen Willenbildung des britischen Weltreiches (Berlin, 1933). In the early 1930s Geoffrey Faber often sought his advice about German books suitable for translation into English.
10.W. H. AudenAuden, Wystan Hugh ('W. H.') (1907–73), poet, playwright, librettist, translator, essayist, editor: see Biographical Register.
2.EdithEvans, Edith Evans (1888–1976), versatile stage and screen actor; enduringly celebrated for her appearance as Lady Bracknell in the film of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (1952). Evans won her reputation during her long association (from 1925) with the Old Vic, London: her other notable roles included Judith Bliss in Noel Coward’s Hay Fever on the stage and the movie Tom Jones (1963). DBE, 1946.
1.MarkGertler, Mark – orig. Marks – Gertler (1891–1939), British artist of Polish Jewish descent, studied at the Slade School of Art (where contemporaries included Paul Nash, C. R. W. Nevinson, Stanley Spencer and Isaac Rosenberg); was supported variously by Ottoline Morrell, Edward Marsh and Gilbert Canaan, and was for many years infatuated with Dora Carrington; suffered from tuberculosis for much of his adult life. See Sarah MacDougall, Mark Gertler (2002), David Boyd Hancock, A Crisis of Brilliance: Five Young British Artists and the Great War (2009).
2.RoseHaigh-Wood, Rose Esther (TSE's mother-in-law, née Robinson) Esther Haigh-Wood (1860–1941), wifeHaigh-Wood, Charles of Charles Haigh-Wood (1854–1927), artist.
3.WalterJanssen, Walter Janssen (1887–1976), actor and director (noted primarily for his work in film).
1.LeonLion, Leon Marks Marks Lion (1879–1947), British actor, producer and manager; starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s Number 17 (1932). TSE to Phyllis Woodliffe – who played ‘Mrs Bert’ in The Rock – 22 Aug. 1934: ‘Now, my personal acquaintance with the stage, and what is much more important, with managers etc. is very limited; I was once mistaken for Leon M. Lion, that’s about all.’
2.HopeMirrlees, Hope Mirrlees (1887–1978), British poet, novelist, translator and biographer, was to become a close friend of TSE: see Biographical Register.
3.AlidaMonro, Alida (née Klementaski) Klementaski (1892–1969) married Harold Monro on 27 Mar. 1920: see Alida Monro in Biographical Register.
4.LadyMorrell, Lady Ottoline Ottoline Morrell (1873–1938), hostess and patron: see Biographical Register.
7.JamesStephens, James Stephens (?1882–1950), Irish novelist and poet; close friend of OM.