[Grace Toll Hall, Scripps College, Claremont]
[Letterhead]
B-11 Eliot House
SoHale, Emilycorrespondence with TSE;w3which finally takes place;d5 another event which I believed impossible has happened, and I have really spoken to you by telephone. I fell into a great funk after I had given in your number, while I was waiting, and began to wish that I had never proposed telephoning, because the disappointment of failing to get you would be so intense. And when I finally heard you I was nearly speechless, and partly imbecile, and afraid of being too emotional; and I wonder what it was like from your end of the line. When it was over I was still very excited, and I think I still am; but I slept well and happily, and hope you did. It was delightful to hear you laugh a little, once or twice, though I feel that you are still pretty forlorn in your exile; and it was hard being able to talk to you and yet not touch your hand. But I am happy to think that I can speak to you at this distance, and perhaps that at some time you might surprise me by ringing me up (I cant type this morning [)].1
MyEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother)surprises TSE in Boston;a7 brother came suddenly on Friday evening, asSmith, Charlotte ('Chardy') Stearns (TSE's niece);a6 he had an opportunity to be conveyed by my niece and her husband, who has just got a new motor of which he is justly proud, and is my guest until tomorrow when they all return to New York. I am very happy to have him, especiallyEliots, the T. S.in 1926;f1 as I have not seen him since 1926, and then in circumstances which were otherwise very disturbed and unhappy for me; and it is good to have him to myself, though I confess that at the moment I do find even the most beloved visitor rather tiring. He was sound asleep before midnight and does not know that I was telephoning to anybody, or how excited I was. His visit has meant repeated family visits: SaturdaySheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister)TSE and Henry visit together;b1 night to Ada’s, SundayEliot, Margaret Dawes (TSE's sister)TSE and Henry visit;a8 to Margaret’s, tonightEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister);a7 to Marion’s; andHale, Lillian;a1 tomorrow I have to dine with Marion at her friend Mrs Fay’s (Lillian Hale).2 (I do not know why Lillian Hale wants to see me again, as I have not seen her since I was a boy, and she is Marion’s age). AndEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister)Symphony concerts with TSE;a8 on Thursday I am taking Marion to the Symphony Concert, and onManwaring, Elizabethand Wellesley poetry reading;a1 Friday dine with Ada to discuss my poetry reading at Wellesley on Monday with Miss Manwaring.3 (I wish that I could take you to a Symphony Concert, but should we have a good cry?)
Accordingtravels, trips and plansTSE's 1933 westward tour to Scripps;a8TSE's itinerary;a4 to what we said on the telephone, I understand that it is best that I should arrange to come to the S. California district early in January, before the 5th, and get a few engagements about there if I can; meanwhile leaving open the possibility of starting at Seattle and coming south when you do. I think that I ought to be able to hang about in California for a week or ten days, including lectures and three or four days of leisure. The chief out about Seattle before then (that is on the assumption that you go there) is the difficulty of getting lectures in the holiday season. TheUniversity of Southern Californiaoffers TSE $150 to lecture;a2 University of Southern California can give me $150, and I suppose I shall need two or three more lectures to pay my expenses; I have not the slightest idea what trans-continental train fares are: will you tell me? MeanwhilePerkinses, the;a8 I am writing to Mr. and Mrs. Perkins, and shall incidentally hope through them to see the Krauss’s if and when they come.
I do hope and believe that your courses are starting well; I am sure that you have no need to fret about them. And what exactly are they? and what is the dramatic work in which you are already launched? PrayCharles Eliot Norton Lectures (afterwards The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism);b3 for me: ICharles Eliot Norton Lectures (afterwards The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism)'The Relation of Criticism and Poetry' (afterwards 'Introduction');b6and the Charles Norton references;a2 begin to address the public, openingreading (TSE's)Letters of Charles Eliot Norton;b9 with a slight panegyric of CharlesNorton, Charles EliotTSE reading up on;a2 Norton (whose Life & Letters I have been reading – what a typical person of his type he is!) on November 4th; the Radcliffe Club on November 8th; andCharles Eliot Norton Lectures (afterwards The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism)'Poetry and Criticism in the Time of Elizabeth' (afterwards 'Apology for the Countess of Pembroke');b7 my second Norton about Nov. 18th. Did I send you my last poem? viz.
How'Five-Finger Exercises''Lines for Cuscuscaraway and Mirza Murad Ali Beg';a1 Unpleasant to Meet Mr. Eliot!4
—With his features of Clerical Cut,
And his Brow so Grim
And his Mouth so Prim
—And his Conversation, so Nicely
—Restricted to What Precisely
——And If & Perhaps & But.
How Unpleasant to Meet Mr. Eliot!
—With a bobtail Cur
—In a coat of Fur
—And a Porpentine Cat
—And a Wopsical Hat.
How Unpleasant to Meet Mr. Eliot!
—Whether his Mouth be Open or Shut.
Now I must trot to the Bank for money, having spent a vast sum on Saturday on Stationery; and one of my medecines [sic] costs 1.50 and the other 2.50 and they only last ten days andappearance (TSE's)baldness;b6;a2 I am as Bald as ever, & quite Hideous except when my hair is just brushed.
Ma chère, ma chère – petit choux – à bientôt.5
1.TSE made several typing errors in this paragraph: each typo was corrected by overtyping.
2.LillianHale, Lillian Hale (1881–1942), teacher and artist, was married to Charles Norman Fay (1848–1944), founder of the Chicago Orchestra.
3.ElizabethManwaring, Elizabeth Manwaring (1879–1959), a Professor of English at Wellesley College, was author of a pioneering study, Italian Landscape in Eighteenth Century England: a study chiefly of the influence of Claude Lorrain and Salvator Rosa on English Taste, 1700–1800 (New York, 1925). Good friend of TSE’s sister Marian.
4.Published as ‘Lines for Cuscuscaraway and Mirza Murad Ali Beg’, ‘Five Finger Exercises’. Ricks & McCue note (Poems II, 460) that the lines were sent to Ralph Hodgson on 16 Aug. 1932.
5.‘My dear, my dear – little cabbage – see you soon.’
3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: see Biographical Register.
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.LillianHale, Lillian Hale (1881–1942), teacher and artist, was married to Charles Norman Fay (1848–1944), founder of the Chicago Orchestra.
3.ElizabethManwaring, Elizabeth Manwaring (1879–1959), a Professor of English at Wellesley College, was author of a pioneering study, Italian Landscape in Eighteenth Century England: a study chiefly of the influence of Claude Lorrain and Salvator Rosa on English Taste, 1700–1800 (New York, 1925). Good friend of TSE’s sister Marian.
10.CharlesNorton, Charles Eliot Eliot Norton (1827–1908), author, social critic and translator; friend of artists and writers including Carlyle, Ruskin and Leslie Stephen; Professor of the History of Art, Harvard.
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.TheodoraSmith, Theodora ('Dodo') Eliot (TSE's niece) Eliot Smith (1904–92) – ‘Dodo’ – daughter of George Lawrence and Charlotte E. Smith: see Biographical Register. Theodora’sSmith, Charlotte ('Chardy') Stearns (TSE's niece) sister was Charlotte Stearns Smith (b. 1911), known as ‘Chardy’.