[c/o Sylvia Knowles, 47 Morelands Terrace, New Bedford]
Your long letter of the 20th was on my table this morning – very good time, isn’t it, from New Bedford – it must have gone straight to New York. I arrived late, and just had time to read it, and nothing else, beforeUnderhill, Revd Francis, Bishop of Bath and Wellsbecomes Dean of Rochester;a8 I left early for my last confession with Fr. Underhill – I mean my last this year (he is Dean of Rochester now, but will come up to town for his regular penitents) and lunch with him and his sister (who is to keep house for him in Rochester); thenMorrah, Dermot Michael MacgregorThe Mummy Case;a1 back here to spend the first hour of the afternoon with Dermot Morrah (an Irishman, Fellow of All Souls’)1 discussing his detective story which we are to publish – such details as a likely name for an American millionaire (I demurred at Otis Y. Van Dritten and Luther P. Lewstein, and suggested slight alterations to put them right; whether the American gunman should belong to the University of Cambridge (the novel is laid in Oxford) – Morley was for making them Rhodes Scholars, but Cambridge finally got them – etc. etc.2 V. hasEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood);c4 goneHaigh-Wood, Emily ('Ahmé') Cleveland (TSE's sister-in-law, née Hoagland);a3 to ‘Waltzes from Vienna’3 with her New York sister in law, so I have the afternoon to myself. AndGeorge, Robert Esmonde Gordon ('Robert Sencourt');b4 Robert Sencourt is staying with us for a few days – not, fortunately, over the Bank Holiday (Thank heaven this is my last Bank Holiday in England for a year).
BeforeHale, Emilycorrespondence with TSE;w3but subsequently explains she meant Margaret Thorp;c7 I forget it, I am glad that you have made that correction about Willard Thorp – I think you did mention him as somehow to go through them and to make extracts possible of general enough and impersonal enough character to give out [sic], but I have not time to get out your letters and search for the passage now, and it doesn’t matter. IThorp, WillardEH thinks of entrusting letters to;b1 thought perhaps you had come to know Willard perhaps almost as well as Margaret, and his being a Professor of English etc. YouHale, Emilycorrespondence with TSE;w3EH's to do with as pleases;c8 areThorp, Margaret (née Farrand)possible trustee of Hale correspondence;a7, of course, to do exactly what pleases you best with what is your own property: either course, to entrust them to Margaret orBodleian Library, Oxfordintended repository for EH's letters;a1 to send them to Geoffrey (not Gerald!) Faber to add to my collection of papers for the Bodleian (By the way, I have said nothing about publication, I only made the stipulation that my papers should not be opened (in the MSS. Collection of the Bodleian) for fifty years. I have already given the Bodleian a few manuscripts of poems, butSadler, Sir Michaeldonations to Bodleian via;a1 that sort of donation I make through Sir Michael Sadler, the Master of the Univ.
IChristianitymarriage;c2TSE's need for privacy within;a1 do not however agree that a husband needs share a trust given to a wife, or vice versa, at all. In this instance, it might or might not matter (and whatever you stipulated, I am sure she would carry out faithfully. But I do not admit the principle, which affirms in effect that one cannot be the friend of one member without being equally the friend of the other. I know several couples whom I know equally well, both man and wife; but I do not always want to see them together; I can be a little different with either alone and sometimes can entrust different confidences to each. And I do not approve of husbands and wives opening each other’s letters as a matter of course, for there might always be some confidence which the writer would not want given to any third party. And I think any husband or wife who objected to this rule would be intolerable.
No51 Gordon Square, Londonthe heart of Bloomsbury society;a2, Gordon Square is in Bloomsbury – only a few paces from my office. MyFaber and Faber (F&F)as part of Bloomsbury;b1 window gives upon Woburn Square, and when the trees are leafless I can just see across it into Gordon Square. That is a disadvantage from my point of view, to live so near my work; and I don’t specially want to spend all my time in Bloomsbury. And No. 51 means the very heart of ‘Bloomsbury society’ – whichStracheys, theat the heart of Bloomsbury;a2 meansStephens, thethe heart of Bloomsbury;a2Woolf, Virginia
ItThayer, Lucy Elyexpected from 1 October;a3 appears now likely that her American friend will come, but not until about October 1st, which leaves a fortnight to provide for. WhatEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood)and TSE's departure for America;e9TSE dreads scene of departure;b1 I am nervous about in any event is V.’s behaviour at the moment of my leaving – whether she will do everything in her power to prevent me etc. OnceEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood)separation from;f1Dr Miller's opinion on;a5 I have gone, I believe (and so does Dr. Miller,5 whom I saw the other day) that she would pick up very quickly and perhaps enjoy herself thoroughly. She has never had a definite separation before – I have always been get-at-able, and the result is of course unpredictable; but I believe that Dr. Miller hopes that she may get on so well as not to want me back, much, when the time comes.
I am glad to have ‘Morelands Terrace’ verified by a printed envelope, and to know that my letters reach it safely. The name sounds so much more like Kensington or Bayswater than a New England town, that I could hardly believe that I had read your hand rightly. It sounds very pleasant and restful. You must have had an arduous week of packing, and any tearing up of roots is depressing, whatever one anticipates. IScripps College, ClaremontEH expects suite at;b7 am glad therefore that you do look forward to your suite at Scripps – will it be bedroom, sitting room and bathroom, at least? – and am I to address letters in future to Professor Hale (I certainly shall as retaliation if you address me as Professor Eliot). SoHale, EmilyTSE fears accident befalling;b5 you will learn to drive; that is a good thing to know how to do; but I hope you will always be very cautious, not be tempted by the pleasures of speed, and remember that however carefully you drive there are always a lot of reckless fools, drunk and sober, on the road as well.
I must get out your previous letters from Seattle, and remind myself of the address. And how long, pray, does it take to send a letter from Boston to California by Air Mail?
I must stop now. I should like to see photographs of the summer dresses on you (and why haven’t you worn any for years?). If I presented you with a small Kodak, when I come, could I get you to get yourself photographed for me from time to time? I am really a little feverish these days, and shall not return to normal until I find myself in full Atlantic.
1.DermotMorrah, Dermot Michael Macgregor Michael Macgregor Morrah (1896–1974), Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford; author and journalist; worked in the civil service, then for the Daily Mail and The Times; and wrote several books on the Royal Family, including a biography of Prince Charles. Appointed Arundel Herald Extraordinary, 1953. Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, 1959.
2.DermotMorrah, Dermot Michael MacgregorThe Mummy Case;a1 Morrah, The Mummy Case (F&F, 1933). Blurb by TSE: ‘The Mummy Case is a story of Oxford – of the Oxford of the dons – of the ceremonious intimacy of senior common rooms, of inherited and treasured privileges, of the curious aims and processes of the kind called to seek knowledge for its own sake. It is also the application of the ablest minds of Beaufort College to the most surprising crime ever imagined in the University.
‘The two junior Fellows who set out to answer the shattering question of whether it was a modern Professor or an ancient mummy who was burnt in an unhappy conflagration, find themselves drawn on to follow a trail of increasing complications. The tale of violence and cunning is straightened out in the end; and the serenity of Oxford is undisturbed.’
3.Waltzes from Vienna (1930) is a stage musical – premiered in Vienna in 1930 – featuring music by the Strausses; later filmed (1934) by Alfred Hitchcock.
4.RogerFry, Roger Fry (1866–1934), artist and enormously influential critic of art; celebrant of Post-Impressionism; author of works including Vision and Design (1920) and Matisse (1930).
5.DrMiller, Dr Reginald Reginald Miller (1879–1948) of 110 Harley Street, London, W.1.; Consulting Physician to St Mary’s Hospital and to Paddington Green Children’s Hospital, London; a general physician with a special interest in children, he was expert in the problems of mental deficiency in children and in rheumatic diseases and heart diseases in childhood (on which he wrote several articles). He was the first editor, with Dr Hugh Thursfield, of the Archives on Disease in Childhood. Brought up in Hampstead, it is probable that he was an early friend of the Haigh-Wood family.
6.GoldsworthyDickinson, Goldsworthy Lowes Lowes Dickinson (1862–1932), Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge; historian, pacifist, and promoter of the League of Nations; Apostle. OM thought him ‘a rare and gentle Pagan Saint … by temperament religious and poetical’ (Ottoline at Garsington [1974], 117–19).
4.RogerFry, Roger Fry (1866–1934), artist and enormously influential critic of art; celebrant of Post-Impressionism; author of works including Vision and Design (1920) and Matisse (1930).
3.RobertGeorge, Robert Esmonde Gordon ('Robert Sencourt') Esmonde Gordon George – Robert Sencourt (1890–1969) – critic, historian, biographer: see Biographical Register.
5.MauriceHaigh-Wood, Maurice Haigh-Wood was eight years younger than his sister Vivien. InHaigh-Wood, Emily ('Ahmé') Cleveland (TSE's sister-in-law, née Hoagland) 1930 he married a 25-year-old American dancer, Emily Cleveland Hoagland – known as known as ‘Ahmé’ (she was one of the Hoagland Sisters, who had danced at Monte Carlo) – and they were to have two children.
5.DrMiller, Dr Reginald Reginald Miller (1879–1948) of 110 Harley Street, London, W.1.; Consulting Physician to St Mary’s Hospital and to Paddington Green Children’s Hospital, London; a general physician with a special interest in children, he was expert in the problems of mental deficiency in children and in rheumatic diseases and heart diseases in childhood (on which he wrote several articles). He was the first editor, with Dr Hugh Thursfield, of the Archives on Disease in Childhood. Brought up in Hampstead, it is probable that he was an early friend of the Haigh-Wood family.
2.HopeMirrlees, Hope Mirrlees (1887–1978), British poet, novelist, translator and biographer, was to become a close friend of TSE: see Biographical Register.
1.DermotMorrah, Dermot Michael Macgregor Michael Macgregor Morrah (1896–1974), Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford; author and journalist; worked in the civil service, then for the Daily Mail and The Times; and wrote several books on the Royal Family, including a biography of Prince Charles. Appointed Arundel Herald Extraordinary, 1953. Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, 1959.
1.LucyThayer, Lucy Ely Ely Thayer (1887–1952) – a cousin of TSE’s old friend Scofield Thayer, and a friend and confidante of Vivien Eliot – had been a witness at the Eliots’ wedding on 26 June 1915.
16.MargaretThorp, Margaret (née Farrand) Farrand (1891–1970), author and journalist – see Margaret Thorp in 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.
2.Revd Francis UnderhillUnderhill, Revd Francis, Bishop of Bath and Wells, DD (1878–1943), TSE’s spiritual counsellor: see Biographical Register.