[Grace Toll Hall, Scripps College, Claremont]
This is probably the last letter that I shall write to you from this side of the water. You will appreciate what a scramble it is this last week; and as I have said so often, I shall not really believe that I am going until I have gone. Impossibletravels, trips and plansTSE's 1932–3 year in America;a7TSE speculates on attendant feelings;b2 to foresee how I shall feel at that moment: I dare say the first feeling will be of fright and funk; as a man who has been in gaol, or in a hospital, for a very long time, may feel terrified at facing the outside world again. And after that, I don’t know; shall I, I wonder, begin to see the whole of the past eighteen years in a new perspective? That in itself is rather frightening. But I do not worry about that. WhatCharles Eliot Norton Lectures (afterwards The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism);a9 I do hope for is a new access of energy and a clarification of thought which may make my lectures a success.
YouSheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister)TSE pictures his birthday-party with;a6 may imagine me, to begin with, arriving at my sister Ada’s and being surrounded by a birthday party – the day after my birthday. AndScripps College, Claremont;c2 [the] day after tomorrow you go to Scripps, and you too have your feelings of apprehension at beginning a new phase of life. May this next be a good one for both of us!
Incidentallyappearance (TSE's)baldness;b6'in spots';a1, I am threatened with baldness, not the normal masculine baldness, but all in spots! My hairdresser discovered a spot of complete baldness, as big as a butter plate, behind my right ear yesterday, called it by a long name that I can’t remember, and said it was due to paralysis of a nerve caused by ill health. He gave me a lotion and advised me to see my doctor (I am going to see him on Thursday any way). There is hope, apparently, that if I go on steadily with his lotion I may get the hair back, but it will come in white, at least for a time. So I warn you that when you see me you must be prepared to see a half-hairless man, or else with beautiful white patches. You might as well know the worst in advance.
Itravels, trips and plansTSE's 1933 westward tour to Scripps;a8TSE's itinerary;a4 still hope that we may meet in Seattle, that it can be managed somehow. Of course I should like both – to see as well as the place in which you have to live and the people among whom you will be; butKrauss, Sophie M.;a3 Seattle, during your holidays at the Krauss’s, would be more peaceful and private. MeanwhileHale, Emilycorrespondence with TSE;w3TSE hopes to telephone;b5, I hope to telephone to you in something less than three weeks: IEliot Housepossesses telephone;a3 have a telephone at Eliot House in my room, and want to ring you up just as soon as I settle there and we can fix a time for you to be at the other end of the wire.
1.SophieKrauss, Sophie M. M. Krauss (b. 1891), wife of Arthur Jeffrey Krauss (1884–1947), Episcopalian, who had resided in Seattle since 1921. Arthur Krauss ran the Krauss Brothers Lumber Company and was to retire in 1938 when the business was wound up in the area. They lived at 128 40th Avenue N., Seattle, with Lillie Cook (49) and Lucy Williams (28) – presumably their servants. See too Lyndall Gordon, The Hyacinth Girl, 183.
2.AdaSheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister) Eliot Sheffield (1869–1943), eldest of the seven Eliot children; author of The Social Case History: Its Construction and Content (1920) and Social Insight in Case Situations (1937): see Biographical Register.