[Grace Toll Hall, Scripps College, Claremont]
This'Bible as Scripture and as Literature, The'finished;a6 morning I finished my talk for King’s Chapel on Thursday, andwritingcorrespondence;a7 this afternoon, after 3:30 and this evening up to 11:00 which is the present hour, I have written thirty letters. InMurdock, Harold;a1 between IFaber and Faber (F&F);b3 lunched with Mr. Murdock (father of Dean Murdock) the Director of the University Press,1 in order to discuss with him some publication matters concerning Faber & Faber; andSociety of Saint John the Evangelist, Cambridge, Mass.St. Andrew's Day observed at;a3 tomorrow I must go to early Mass, because it is St. Andrew’s Day; so I think that now for half an hour I am entitled to the pleasure and relaxation of writing a little line to you. WhenHale, Emilycorrespondence with TSE;w3a solitude within a solitude;d9 I come back from any company of people and shut myself up alone in my room I feel a great sense of relief; and when, even when, I have been most of the day alone in my room and sit down to write to you, there is a further sense of relief, as if I had stepped into another room and shut some other door, and got away from a part of myself which corresponded somehow to the noise and chatter of a group of people. ISheffields, the;a8 feel a little of that (and a little is a great deal, when it is in contrast with the rest of the world) with Ada and Sheff, andPerkinses, the;b8 I believe that I might in time to come feel it with the Perkins’s. That is all. And I do hope, when I am gone, and eventually you return to Boston, whether permanently or for a visit, you will see Ada and Sheff, and feel with them something like what I feel already with Mr. and Mrs. Perkins. Between me and Ada there is a peculiar bond of understanding and affection.
OnFurness, Laura;a2 SaturdayFurness, Rebekah ('Rebe');a2 Ada and Sheff and Henry (I must explain Henry to you more at length, and the various members of the family) motored in to Lime Street (just off Brimmer!) to tea with our little old cousins Laura and Reby [sc. Rebe] Furness, two dear little old ladies in a dear little house crowded with heirlooms, where were three young Furness-Porter cousins from the Chicago family, two with wives – rather loutish in manners, but I believe good stuff underneath, andEliot, Revd Christopher Rhodes (TSE's uncle);a4 Uncle Christopher andEliot, Abigail Adams (TSE's cousin);a3 Abby (MarthaEliot, Dr Martha May (TSE's cousin);a1 having gone back to New Haven[)]. And family parties with lots of cousins like that give me much pleasure and coziness, as I have suggested. IBottrall, Ronaldaccompanies TSE to literary dinner;a3 had asked a young protégé of mine named RonaldPrinceton Universityand Ronald Bottrall;a4 Bottrall, a Cornishman from Cambridge, who is a Commonwealth at Princeton, for the weekend. He arrived about 6.30 at my rooms, and I took him to supper – no, dinner, for it was quite grand, though informal, as Mrs. Murdock is in hospital – withMurdock, Kenneth B.;a4 a Master of Leverett, Dean Murdock, a nice freshlooking young man of 38 (looks younger) son of Murdock mentioned above; whereBurnham, James;a1 were James Burnham editor of ‘The Symposium’ in New York,2 andMagoun, Francis Peabody;a1 a Professor Magoon (?) not very impressive.3 SundayHillyer, Robertunimproved by further acquaintance;a3, I went alone to Professor Hillyers [sic], leaving Bottrall to his own devices. I felt a kind of obligation to accept the Hillyers’ invitation, because, as I think I told you, he struck me as rather common, so I felt I ought to know him better. He still seems to me common, and possibly a social climber, but damn it rather pathetic. This turned out to be a very large lunch (one is deceived here by casual sounding invitations over the telephone) of a buffet sort. TheProfessor William Ellery Sedgwicks, the;a1 young Ellery Sedgwicks were there (they seemed to be in demand) andSeaver, Mattie;a1 a kind of buffoon named I think Arthur Johnson who seemed to know everybody in Cambridge and Boston and told an anecdote of Mattie Seaver4 among others, andCocteau, Jeanan amusing bore;a4 was so amusing as to be a bore – I mean he succeeded in being amusing by trying too hard, just as Jean Cocteau does, and other folk whose names I did not catch, asRussell, Ada Dwyer;a2 well as that stout Mrs. Russell from Chestnut Hill who is a friend of the late Amy Lowell. ILyman, Elizabeth Van Cortlandt Parker;a1 found myself eventually eating turkey in a corner with a Mrs. Ronald Lyman,5 who claims to be a cousin by marriage of Charles Eliot’s, and who seems odd, but her daughter is odder. But I don’t understand all these folk yet, and you have not vouchsafed me any social instructions. Sinceappearance (TSE's)baldness;b6;a5 Sunday, nothing but what I have told you, except my bi-weekly scalp treatment by Mrs. Bainbridge; but my hair is not beginning to grow yet, and you must be prepared for a Shocking sight.
Et ainsi, me trouvant un peu surmené par le commerce de tout ce monde, je me suis donné le plaisir et le rèpos assez merités, je crois, d’écrir un petit mot à ma chère et douce amie Emilie la reine. Crois-moi, chère princesse lointaine, toujours ton fidèle serviteur6
IPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle)writes about second Norton lecture;a8 had a very sweet note of assurance about my last lecture & the next, from your uncle.
1.HaroldMurdock, Harold Murdock (1862–1934), a Boston banker, became Director of Harvard University Press in 1920.
2.JamesBurnham, James Burnham (1905–87), who taught philosophy at New York University, 1929–53, was co-editor of The Symposium, 1930–3. During the 1930s he was a Trotskyite communist.
3.FrancisMagoun, Francis Peabody Peabody Magoun (1895–1979), an American who served with the British Royal Flying Corps in WW1 (he purported to be Canadian) and won the Military Cross, was to become an eminent scholar of medieval and English literature. He taught at Harvard, rising to be Professor of Comparative Literature, 1937; Professor of English, 1951; retiring in 1961.
4.MattieSeaver, Mattie Seaver (1885–1964), whom TSE knew as a resident of St. Louis, Missouri.
5.ElizabethLyman, Elizabeth Van Cortlandt Parker Van Cortlandt Parker (1883–1953), wife of Ronald T. Lyman (son of a textile magnate), she was active in the arts and for some years President of the Boston Athenaeum. They lived at 39 Beacon Street.
6.‘And so, finding myself a bit overworked by everyone’s business, I gave myself the pleasure and the rest, which I think are quite deserved, to write a little note to my dear and sweet friend Emilie the Queen. Believe me, dear distant princess, always your faithful servant’ Eliot teases EH by alluding to La Princesse lointaine (1895), by Edmond Rostand.
2.RonaldBottrall, Ronald Bottrall (1906–89), poet, critic, teacher and administrator, studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge and became Lektor in English, University of Helsingfors (Helsinki), Finland, 1929–31, before spending two years at Princeton. He was Johore Professor of English at Raffles University, Singapore, 1933–7, and taught for a year at the English Institute, Florence, before serving as British Council Representative in Sweden, 1941–5; Rome, 1945–54; Brazil, 1954–7; Greece, 1957–9; Japan, 1959–61. At the close of his career he was Head of the Fellowships and Training Branch of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations in Rome. His poetry includes The Loosening (1931) and Festivals of Fire (1934).
2.JamesBurnham, James Burnham (1905–87), who taught philosophy at New York University, 1929–53, was co-editor of The Symposium, 1930–3. During the 1930s he was a Trotskyite communist.
2.JeanCocteau, Jean Cocteau (1889–1963), playwright, poet, librettist, novelist, film-maker, artist and designer, was born near Paris and established an early reputation with two volumes of verse, La Lampe d’Aladin (Aladdin’s Lamp) and Prince Frivole (The Frivolous Prince). Becoming associated with many of the foremost practitioners of experimental modernism, such as Gide, Picasso, Stravinsky, Satie and Modigliani, he turned his energies to modes of artistic activity ranging from ballet-scenarios to opera-scenarios, as well as fiction and drama. ‘Astonish me!’ urged Sergei Diaghilev. A quick collaborator in all fields, his works embrace stage productions such as Parade (1917, prod. by Diaghilev, with music by Satie and designs by Picasso); Oedipus Rex (1927, with music by Stravinsky); and La Machine Infernale (produced at the Comédie des Champs-Elysées, 1934); novels including Les Enfants terribles (1929); and the screenplay Le Sang d’un poète (1930; The Blood of a Poet, 1949).
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].)
1.DrEliot, Dr Martha May (TSE's cousin) Martha May Eliot (1891–1978), pediatrician: 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].)
6.RebekahFurness, Rebekah ('Rebe') (‘Rebe’) Furness (1854–1937) andFurness, Laura Laura Furness (1857–1949) – born in Philadelphia, daughters of James Thwing Furness and Elizabeth Margaret Eliot (a descendant of Sheriff William Greenleaf, who had declaimed the Declaration of Independence from the balcony of the State House in Boston in 1776) – had lived since 1920, with their brother Dawes Eliot Furness, in Boston’s Back Bay neighbourhood and in Petersham, New Hampshire. Rebekah, a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, was an artist.
6.RebekahFurness, Rebekah ('Rebe') (‘Rebe’) Furness (1854–1937) andFurness, Laura Laura Furness (1857–1949) – born in Philadelphia, daughters of James Thwing Furness and Elizabeth Margaret Eliot (a descendant of Sheriff William Greenleaf, who had declaimed the Declaration of Independence from the balcony of the State House in Boston in 1776) – had lived since 1920, with their brother Dawes Eliot Furness, in Boston’s Back Bay neighbourhood and in Petersham, New Hampshire. Rebekah, a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, was an artist.
12.RobertHillyer, Robert Hillyer (1895–1961), poet, taught from 1926 at Harvard, where he became Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, 1937–44. Collected Verse (1933) won a Pulitzer Prize. He became notorious when he published in the Saturday Review of Literature in 1949 a condemnation of the award of the Bollingen Prize to the ‘fascist’ Ezra Pound for Pisan Cantos.
5.ElizabethLyman, Elizabeth Van Cortlandt Parker Van Cortlandt Parker (1883–1953), wife of Ronald T. Lyman (son of a textile magnate), she was active in the arts and for some years President of the Boston Athenaeum. They lived at 39 Beacon Street.
3.FrancisMagoun, Francis Peabody Peabody Magoun (1895–1979), an American who served with the British Royal Flying Corps in WW1 (he purported to be Canadian) and won the Military Cross, was to become an eminent scholar of medieval and English literature. He taught at Harvard, rising to be Professor of Comparative Literature, 1937; Professor of English, 1951; retiring in 1961.
1.HaroldMurdock, Harold Murdock (1862–1934), a Boston banker, became Director of Harvard University Press in 1920.
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).
3.DrPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle) John Carroll Perkins (1862–1950), Minister of King’s Chapel, Boston: see Biographical Register.
10.AdaRussell, Ada Dwyer Dwyer Russell (1863–1952), American actor who in 1912 entered into a romantic partnership with the poet Amy Lowell. Earlier in her life Dwyer had married an actor named Harold Russell, but the couple had promptly separated following the birth of a daughter – they were never to be divorced – and it was almost two decades afterwards that she began the lesbian relationship with Lowell.
4.MattieSeaver, Mattie Seaver (1885–1964), whom TSE knew as a resident of St. Louis, Missouri.