[Grace Toll Hall, Scripps College, Claremont]
AlthoughSheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister)Madison Street preferable to Eliot House;a7 I have not yet left 31 Madison Street, where I am really more comfortable and happy than I expect to be in college. TheEliot HouseTSE offered more peaceful suite in;a4 reason is, first, a delay in providing blankets and sheets; second, the fact that my sitting room is divided only by a sealed door from the room of two undergraduates with rather strident voices; and I can not only hear their conversation (quite uninteresting) very clearly, but also their gramophone (or wireless, I don’t know which) and their typewriter. That might be just endurable, as I have another protected room I can work in, but is undesirable when I have visitors – not only female relatives to tea, but serious students. But I hope I may be able to have a more sheltered suite in the same house.1
EliotEliot Houseoppressively luxurious compared to Oxbridge;a5 House and the neighbouring houses are very grand; the architecture very fine indeed; atUniversity of Cambridgerefreshingly austere;a5 theOxford Universityrefreshingly austere;a5 same time the unfamiliar luxury oppresses me – so different from the austerity of Oxford or Cambridge; andEliot family, thecoat of arms in Eliot House;a2 finding the family arms over everything, cut into the stonework, and even illuminated on the back of chairs, does not make me feel at home, but merely affects me with an embarrassed sense of vulgarity.
There is too much to write about to make a coherent letter at the beginning. But first I must thank you for your dear letters – one found, to my surprise, on the boat, after we were under weigh [sic] in the Solent; one that came aboard (to my hope & delight) with the pilot in the St. Lawrence; and one at Eliot House. I did not open the parcel on the day I found that letter: the reason was that the printing on it was so closely like my brother’s that without looking at the postmark I assumed at once that it was something from him, so that I thought your parcel had not yet arrived. MyHale, Emilybirthdays, presents and love-tokens;w2present from EH;a4 dear, you should not have given me anything so costly and fine; but I am very proud indeed to have it; and I do like it, and approve your taste, very warmly indeed. I think it is a most charming design – please tell the artist if you should ever be in communication with her. And if any of my relatives, when they come to see my rooms later (whether they be the same or others) ask where it came from, I think I had best tell the truth? Of course I shall be very proud to admit that it was a gift from you; but there is time for you now to let me know what you wish.
I am still very dizzy with the complete change in life. IAmericaBoston, Massachusetts;d1restores TSE's health;b2 am already better in health, I think; also get more fresh air and walking than I have had; and I find I am sleeping better. ISheffields, theTSE feels able to confide in;a1 am thankful to have broken the fall by stopping at Ada’s; ISheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister)after seventeen years' separation;a8 did not know, not having seen her for seventeen years, what sort of contact we should be able to establish; but I am happy to find, not only our affection undiminished, but our capacity for understanding unaltered; and I begin to feel that both she and her husband are still people who will understand what I say, and in whom I shall be able to confide. NextEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister)TSE reflects on reunion with;a6 to them, my sister Marion: not of course in the way of confidence, and she has no part of their intellectual gifts, but in congeniality. FromEliot, Margaret Dawes (TSE's sister)remote from TSE;a7 my sister Margaret I feel completely removed; IEliot, Revd Christopher Rhodes (TSE's uncle)sees TSE in Boston;a1 haveEliot, Abigail Adams (TSE's cousin);a1 also seen Uncle Christopher and Abby2 – that does not matter so much as we were never intimate. IHinkleys, thetheir company makes TSE feel wary;c2 went to lunch with the Hinkley’s [sic] yesterday. They were kind and loveable and hospitable of course; but I did feel with them the very narrow limitations, both intellectual and emotional, and the very small corner of congeniality that remains. Though I remain as fond of them as ever, I can never enter fully again into their lives; and indeed, I feel that I must take precautions against allowing them – with the best intentions – to take me too closely into their circle. My general impression, obviously, is a sad one; that will no doubt become blunted with habituation, and modified by new and various acquaintances: andEnglandLondon;h1more 'home' to TSE than America;b1 ifSheffields, thesave TSE from homesickness;a2 it were not for Ada and Sheff, and yourself though so far away still, I should feel very homesick indeed: ‘homeFaber and Faber (F&F)TSE considers 'home';b2’ toOxford and Cambridge Clubconsidered 'home';a4 me has come to mean London in general, and my office and my club in particular.
SoSpencer, Theodorelooks after TSE;a2 far I have not seen many people; IMungovan, Jim;a1 have been looked after by Theodore Spencer, who is a very likeable fellow indeed, by a most charming janitor or Senior Porter at Eliot House named Jim Mungovan. IMurdock, Kenneth B.;a3 have called on Dean Murdock, who is suave and obliging; haveLowell, Abbott LawrenceTSE's first impression of;a1 met the President, who strikes me as a very affable, mediocre, middleclass Boston business man in a job much too big for him; andMerriman, Roger Bigelow;a1 have left a card on Merriman, the Master of Eliot House.3 And the new impressions are so very tiring that I have not, especially being still unsettled in habitation, attempted any work: this morning I am making my first attempt at letters.
TheEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood)and TSE's departure for America;e9TSE describes the moment of departure;b3 departure was easier than I expected. Vivienne insisted on coming to Southampton; butHaigh-Wood, Mauricefacilitate TSE's leave-taking;a4 fortunately her brother and his wife were so kind as to come with her and look after her. HerHaigh-Wood, Emily ('Ahmé') Cleveland (TSE's sister-in-law, née Hoagland)smooths TSE's day of departure;a4 sister-in-law came out splendidly, and I must write her a letter of thanks; for she chattered perpetually in a light way, and pretended that the whole thing was great fun; so that V. kept up to the last.4 I have had one or two anxious cables from her while on the sea, of course; and so far no letter from her or anyone; but it sounded as if things were going pretty well. Thetravels, trips and plansTSE's 1932–3 year in America;a7TSE on the voyage over;b3 voyage was like most voyages: first I was able to keep to myself and speak to no one; then my passion for chess got the better of me, and so I made the acquaintance of a couple of chess-playing professors from Toronto; and finally a very touching little girl of twenty or so, who was with her father (also a professor from Toronto) made me dance and play shuffleboard. But there were no rowdy people and no drinking; a very pleasant humble set of people on the whole; and I was glad that I came by that route.
Nowtravels, trips and plansTSE's 1933 westward tour to Scripps;a8TSE's itinerary;a4 about the Christmas holidays once more. My dear girl, you do muddle me about what seems complicated enough already. YouScripps College, Claremont;c3 speak of my coming ‘here’ i.e. Scripps & Southern California, of your hoping that I catch something in Seattle, and finally you refer to the possibility of your coming East! now which is it to be? You know I shan’t have the time to visit both Seattle and California; andAmericaSt. Louis, Missouri;h4;a4 if you really mean seriously to come East (do you mean all the way East?) then of course I don’t want to go West at all – that is, any farther than St. Louis. My holidays are not quite so long as I hoped, apparently: Dec. 22nd to just before Feb. 1st, andPercy Graeme Turnbull Memorial Lectures, The (otherwise The Varieties of Metaphysical Poetry);a2 there may be some awkwardness about fitting in my week in Baltimore (for three lectures) during term.5 IChristianitythe Church Year;d8church trumps family during;a5 could go direct to St. Louis – I have no compunction about being absent from my family then – it would be quite other if my mother were still living – and spend Christmas with my aunt there – I probably should be unable to get a lecture engagement there or anywhere just at Christmas time; and could come west directly after Christmas, have a few days in your vicinity (either in California or Seattle) and be able to give a few lectures the second or third week in January, before returning. (As for money making, I think I can do well enough with lectures at places within twentyfour hours of Boston, during the second term). Now is it difficult for you to make your plans now, so that I can fit myself into them?
I shall write again in a couple of days: it is a delight to feel that I can write to you any day, without bothering about mail days.
Ton (not votre, if you please?) affectueux et dévoué, et chérissant la belle gravure de ton choix pour moi6
1.TSEEliot HouseTSE moved to B-11;a6 was assigned B-11 on the ground floor of Eliot House.
2.RevdEliot, Revd Christopher Rhodes (TSE's uncle) Christopher Rhodes Eliot (1856–1945) andEliot, Abigail Adams (TSE's cousin) his daughter Abigail Adams Eliot (b. 1892). ‘After taking his A.B. at Washington University in 1856, [Christopher] taught for a year in the Academic Department. He later continued his studies at Washington University and at Harvard, and received two degrees in 1881, an A.M. from Washington University and an S.T.B. from the Harvard Divinity School. He was ordained in 1882, but thereafter associated himself with eastern pastorates, chiefly with the Bulfinch Place Church in Boston. His distinctions as churchman and teacher were officially recognized by Washington University in [its] granting him an honorary Doctorate of Laws in 1925’ (‘The Eliot Family and St Louis’: appendix prepared by the Department of English to TSE’s ‘American Literature and the American Language’ [Washington University Press, 1953].)
3.RogerMerriman, Roger Bigelow Bigelow Merriman (1876–1945), the first Master of Eliot House, Harvard, which was opened in 1931. Born in Boston and educated at Harvard (PhD, 1902), he studied also at Balliol College, Oxford, and in Berlin. He was appointed Professor of History at Harvard in 1918. His writings include Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell (1902), Rise of the Spanish Empire (4 vols, 1918–34) and Suleiman the Magnificent (1944). He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a vice-president of the Massachusetts Historical Society; and he received honorary degrees from Oxford, Glasgow and Cambridge. Robert Speaight was to say of him, in The Property Basket: Recollections of a Divided Life (1970), 187: ‘A ripe character and erudite historian of the Spanish Empire, Merriman was Balliol to the backbone. At Oxford he was known as “Lumps” and at Harvard he was known as “Frisky”, and while his appearance suggested the first his ebullience did not contradict the second.’
4.MauriceHaigh-Wood, Mauriceon TSE's departure for America;a5n Haigh-Wood to Donald Adamson, 25 Feb. 1969: ‘Vivien, my wife & I saw Tom off at Southampton when he sailed for America, & he & Vivien walked a little while on the liner’s deck while my wife & I sat & waited’ (Donald Adamson Collection).
Seymour-Jones, Painted Shadow, 482: ‘Even as the Eliots left their flat in a cab, weighed down with his ample luggage, and followed by Maurice and his wife Ahmé in another, Tom discovered that Vivienne had locked some of his important papers in the bathroom. He asked a friend [Alida Monro] to go back and a page-boy from a nearby hotel had to be pushed through the bathroom window. The papers were retrieved and handed to Tom at the station a few minutes before the boat-train left for Southampton.’ See too Sencourt, T. S. Eliot, 121.
Alida Monro to TSE, 13 Oct. 1932: ‘Yes, I was glad the suitcase episode ended so happily […]
‘And talking of Southampton reminds me that V. must be very far gone in irresponsibility when she could gaily sit in that taxi with you going to Waterloo, knowing that I was going back to the flat with little prospect of getting into your room as she had locked it up and hidden the key! It was a miracle we found it. The poor maids were terrified of what would be said when it was found we had “burgled” the room. V. did ring me up on her return and said in a very threatening tone that she would like to know what “happened” when I got back. I told her plainly’ (Princeton).
5.TSE was to give the Turnbull Lectures at Johns Hopkins University in 1933: see Varieties of Metaphysical Poetry, ed. Ronald Schuchard (1994); CProse 4, 709–57.
6.‘loving and devoted, and cherishing the beautiful engraving you chose for me.’
2.RevdEliot, Revd Christopher Rhodes (TSE's uncle) Christopher Rhodes Eliot (1856–1945) andEliot, Abigail Adams (TSE's cousin) his daughter Abigail Adams Eliot (b. 1892). ‘After taking his A.B. at Washington University in 1856, [Christopher] taught for a year in the Academic Department. He later continued his studies at Washington University and at Harvard, and received two degrees in 1881, an A.M. from Washington University and an S.T.B. from the Harvard Divinity School. He was ordained in 1882, but thereafter associated himself with eastern pastorates, chiefly with the Bulfinch Place Church in Boston. His distinctions as churchman and teacher were officially recognized by Washington University in [its] granting him an honorary Doctorate of Laws in 1925’ (‘The Eliot Family and St Louis’: appendix prepared by the Department of English to TSE’s ‘American Literature and the American Language’ [Washington University Press, 1953].)
6.MargaretEliot, Margaret Dawes (TSE's sister) Dawes Eliot (1871–1956), TSE's second-oldest sister sister, resident in Cambridge, Mass. In an undated letter (1952) to his Harvard friend Leon M. Little, TSE wrote: ‘Margaret is 83, deaf, eccentric, recluse (I don’t think she has bought any new clothes since 1900).’
1.Marian/MarionEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister) Cushing Eliot (1877–1964), fourth child of Henry Ware Eliot and Charlotte Eliot: see Biographical Register.
2.RevdEliot, Revd Christopher Rhodes (TSE's uncle) Christopher Rhodes Eliot (1856–1945) andEliot, Abigail Adams (TSE's cousin) his daughter Abigail Adams Eliot (b. 1892). ‘After taking his A.B. at Washington University in 1856, [Christopher] taught for a year in the Academic Department. He later continued his studies at Washington University and at Harvard, and received two degrees in 1881, an A.M. from Washington University and an S.T.B. from the Harvard Divinity School. He was ordained in 1882, but thereafter associated himself with eastern pastorates, chiefly with the Bulfinch Place Church in Boston. His distinctions as churchman and teacher were officially recognized by Washington University in [its] granting him an honorary Doctorate of Laws in 1925’ (‘The Eliot Family and St Louis’: appendix prepared by the Department of English to TSE’s ‘American Literature and the American Language’ [Washington University Press, 1953].)
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.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.
1.AbbottLowell, Abbott Lawrence Lawrence Lowell (1856–1943), educator and legal scholar; President of Harvard University, 1909–33.
3.RogerMerriman, Roger Bigelow Bigelow Merriman (1876–1945), the first Master of Eliot House, Harvard, which was opened in 1931. Born in Boston and educated at Harvard (PhD, 1902), he studied also at Balliol College, Oxford, and in Berlin. He was appointed Professor of History at Harvard in 1918. His writings include Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell (1902), Rise of the Spanish Empire (4 vols, 1918–34) and Suleiman the Magnificent (1944). He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a vice-president of the Massachusetts Historical Society; and he received honorary degrees from Oxford, Glasgow and Cambridge. Robert Speaight was to say of him, in The Property Basket: Recollections of a Divided Life (1970), 187: ‘A ripe character and erudite historian of the Spanish Empire, Merriman was Balliol to the backbone. At Oxford he was known as “Lumps” and at Harvard he was known as “Frisky”, and while his appearance suggested the first his ebullience did not contradict the second.’
1.KennethMurdock, Kenneth B. B. Murdock (1895–1975), Associate Professor of English, Harvard University, 1930–2; Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, 1931–6; Master of Leverett House, 1931–41. Works include Increase Mather (1924), Literature and Theology in Colonial New England (1949); The Notebooks of Henry James (with F. O. Matthiessen, 1947).
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.
2.TheodoreSpencer, Theodore Spencer (1902–48), writer, poet and critic, taught at Harvard, 1927–49: see Biographical Register.