[No surviving envelope]
The effect of your silence* seems to be to produce a diorrhea (is that spelt right) of words from me; you have only to say if you object. I am of course worried; but I shall probably continue to be just as worried whether you write or not: on the whole I should prefer letters to be tiny but frequent: with, about once a month – I might concede once in two months – a really splendid long letter which would make me feel that you really had an hour to spare for me – meaning about three hours with nothing to do – and could let your mind and pen run on about whatever came into your head over ever so many pages. Long enough so that it would be several days before I was sure I had really decyphered it. IAmherst Collegehosts TSE's poetry-recital;a1 am not going to Amherst tomorrow, and I have had a Tiff with the President – because I thought his telegram implied that I wouldn’t come unless they sent a car for me; whereas I was quite humbly saying that I hadn’t any money to pay for transport.1 I am wondering how things go in California – if you get enough to eat that is the main thing. Iffinances (TSE's);a7 I cannot get my money to England – at something like its previous value – I shall have to go through the Bankruptcy Courts, that’s all. IEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood)separation from;f1TSE encouraged in his determination;a9 have hadFaber, Geoffreywrites to TSE about separation;b9 veryUnderhill, Revd Francis, Bishop of Bath and Wellswrites to TSE about separation;b2 satisfactory letters from Geoffrey Faber and the Dean of Rochester.2 IPerkinses, the;c7 am to dine with the Perkins’s on Saturday; but things are rather complicated. I mean, I myself offered Saturday; and they accepted; then Mrs. Perkins has had two tickets to the Symphony Concert; I should love to go with her of course; but I am aware that if I had arranged another night the problem would not have arisen; I have written to suggest that I should dine but that Dr. and Mrs. Perkins should use the tickets.
* ‘LePascal, Blaisemisquoted;a1 silence de ces vastes espaces m’effraie’. Pascal, Talking of astronomy.3
1.TSE’s appearance at Amherst College had been announced in the Boston Globe, 11 Dec. 1932, 12: ‘Poet T. S. Eliot to read own works at Amherst’: ‘AMHERST, Dec. 10 – T. S. Eliot, leader of the modern school of poetry, will give a reading of his own poems at Amherst College on March 9, it was learned here today.
‘Widely known as the author of the poem, “The Wastelands,” and as an essayist of the ultra modern order, he was invited here by Pres. King, and will meet again with his friend, Robert Frost, Amherst poet-professor.’
2.Letters presumably relating to his decision to separate from Vivien on his return to the UK.
3.TSE misquotes Blaise Pascal: ‘Le silence éternel de ces espaces infinis m’effraie’: ‘The eternal silence of these infinite spaces terrifies me’ (Transition 7, Laf. 201, Sel. 233).
11.GeoffreyFaber, Geoffrey Faber (1889–1961), publisher and poet: see Biographical Register.
2.Revd Francis UnderhillUnderhill, Revd Francis, Bishop of Bath and Wells, DD (1878–1943), TSE’s spiritual counsellor: see Biographical Register.