[41 Brimmer St., Boston]
BienaiméeHale, EmilyTSE's names, nicknames and terms of endearment for;x3'Bienaimée';a4 (there),
Friday the 13th is a lucky day for me as it brought your letter – never was letter so brief so welcome – excuse my apprehension – but you see, for three weeks I had had something from you on a Monday; and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday passed and nothing came. I am glad about the lectureHale, Emilywritings;x4'A Play from Both Sides of the Footlights';b5 in Providence,2 although for a few days it was anything but providential to me – and I can’t write much this morning so will on Monday. I was too paralysed to write more than that brief and perhaps hysterical line before – my light has been darkness for four days – but now all is well with me and happy.
I'Thoughts After Lambeth'finished;a4 have finally completed my tedious pamphlet and nowWhibley, Charlesmemorialised by TSE;a2 must sit down to write a memorial on my dear friend Charles Whibley to read to the English Association on Friday next3 – I wonder if any of his friends will come to hear it – StanleyBaldwin, Stanleyand Whibley's memorial;a1 Baldwin4 wouldn’t have time, but perhapsBarrie, Sir James Matthew ('J. M.')attends Whibley memorial lecture;a1 Barrie5 might come. (I shall tell you more about Whibley). And on Monday I shall return your proof, which I dearly enjoyed reading, and I want to see more. I tried to buy you a Valentine to-day, but couldn’t find a shop that had any! And I want to know
1.—When shall I receive the other photograph? I am devoted to the one I have, but want more.
2.—When is your birthday?
3.—Are you well?
4.—What are you wearing? Do you wear those little woollen skating cap hats that women here have this season?
I live much, probably too much, in the past; and it is a very painful joy to find that you remember some of the events that have haunted me all these years. IHale, Emilyas actor;v8as Olivia in Twelfth Night;a1 couldHale, Emilyappearance and characteristics;v7particularly four dresses;a3 even describe pretty accurately, I think, at least four of your dresses. Probably it is better now to live in what the present has to give, without thinking much of past or future.
I am glad the play is changed, and that you have the ‘lead’.6 I wish I could see it, madonna Olivia, but I should be jealous of those who have the honour and pleasure of playing with you; I know I should. I kiss <have just kissed>7 your most welcome letter.
EnclosedFaber, Ann;a1 one letter this time – from Miss Ann Faber!8
1.TSE had failed to type ‘bienaimée’ (‘beloved’) correctly, so that he typed x’s over the misspelling.
2.EH had given a lecture at the Providence Plantations Club, Providence, Rhode Island, on the topic ‘A Play from Both Sides of the Footlights’.
3.TSE’s talk was delivered to the English Association on 20 Feb. 1931: Charles Whibley: A Memoir (Dec. 1931); CProse 4, 384–98.
4.StanleyBaldwin, Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947), Conservative Party politician; Prime Minister, 1923–4; 1924–9; 1935–7.
5.SirBarrie, Sir James Matthew ('J. M.') James Barrie, Bt, OM (1860–1937), Scottish novelist and dramatist; world-renowned for Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up (1904).
6.EH was playing Olivia, in Twelfth Night (she is addressed by Feste as ‘Madonna’).
7.Added by hand.
8.Postscript added by hand.
AnnFaber, Ann Faber (1922–78) was born and registered in Hampshire: her mother would teasingly refer to her as a ‘Hampshire hog’. She was a boarder at Downe House School, Berkshire, and read history at Somerville College, Oxford (where she became engaged to Alan Watt, who was to be killed at El Alamein). After Oxford, she spent time with the Wrens in Liverpool. Following her military service Ann was employed as secretary by the classical scholar Gilbert Murray in Oxford. She then moved to London where she worked for the family firm in editorial and publicity, as well as writing and publishing a novel of her own, The Imago. However, in Aug. 1952 she suffered a life-changing accident when she crashed her motorcycle, which resulted in the loss of the use of her left arm. (In the mid-1960s she was still doing a little freelance work for Faber, reading manuscripts for Charles Monteith and – in 1967 – arranging a lunch party at her home for the science fiction writers James Blish and Brian Aldiss and their wives.) In Apr. 1958 she married John Corlett, who had two children – Anthony and Brione – from his first marriage, which had ended in divorce. Ann and John did not have children of their own. In the early to mid-1960s Ann and John spent some weeks or months of most years in the West Indies. John had launched and Ann helped with a business called Inter-Continental Air Guides: their firm sold advertising space to hotels and other tourist destinations for inclusion in guidebooks which Ann compiled. In 1966 Ann and John moved from their flat in Highgate to Wiltshire. In the late 1960s or early 1970s John contracted polio while on a work trip to Hong Kong. He became a paraplegic and for the remainder of Ann’s life she was his primary carer, with financial assistance from her mother. During all the years that she had her own property, whether in London or in Wiltshire, Ann’s great love was her garden. Ann died of cancer in March 1978. John survived her by two or three years.
4.StanleyBaldwin, Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947), Conservative Party politician; Prime Minister, 1923–4; 1924–9; 1935–7.
5.SirBarrie, Sir James Matthew ('J. M.') James Barrie, Bt, OM (1860–1937), Scottish novelist and dramatist; world-renowned for Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up (1904).
AnnFaber, Ann Faber (1922–78) was born and registered in Hampshire: her mother would teasingly refer to her as a ‘Hampshire hog’. She was a boarder at Downe House School, Berkshire, and read history at Somerville College, Oxford (where she became engaged to Alan Watt, who was to be killed at El Alamein). After Oxford, she spent time with the Wrens in Liverpool. Following her military service Ann was employed as secretary by the classical scholar Gilbert Murray in Oxford. She then moved to London where she worked for the family firm in editorial and publicity, as well as writing and publishing a novel of her own, The Imago. However, in Aug. 1952 she suffered a life-changing accident when she crashed her motorcycle, which resulted in the loss of the use of her left arm. (In the mid-1960s she was still doing a little freelance work for Faber, reading manuscripts for Charles Monteith and – in 1967 – arranging a lunch party at her home for the science fiction writers James Blish and Brian Aldiss and their wives.) In Apr. 1958 she married John Corlett, who had two children – Anthony and Brione – from his first marriage, which had ended in divorce. Ann and John did not have children of their own. In the early to mid-1960s Ann and John spent some weeks or months of most years in the West Indies. John had launched and Ann helped with a business called Inter-Continental Air Guides: their firm sold advertising space to hotels and other tourist destinations for inclusion in guidebooks which Ann compiled. In 1966 Ann and John moved from their flat in Highgate to Wiltshire. In the late 1960s or early 1970s John contracted polio while on a work trip to Hong Kong. He became a paraplegic and for the remainder of Ann’s life she was his primary carer, with financial assistance from her mother. During all the years that she had her own property, whether in London or in Wiltshire, Ann’s great love was her garden. Ann died of cancer in March 1978. John survived her by two or three years.
7.CharlesWhibley, Charles Whibley (1859–1930), journalist and author: see Biographical Register.