[1418 East 63d St., Seattle]
This has not been an eventful week, butCharles Eliot Norton Lectures (afterwards The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism)being revised for publication;c6 my silence means that I have been forcing myself to face the disagreeable task of correcting and re-typing my Norton lectures – and the only way in which I can do anything so tedious and unwelcome is to do nothing else. So'Of the Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles'written at Pike's Farm;a1 I have not written a single letter, exceptFaber, Thomas Erle ('Tom', TSE's godson)poem written for;a4 one business letter to Faber and a Poem about the Battle of Pekes and Pollicles for Tom1 – and that’s almost business, becauseOld Possum’s Book of Practical Catsconceived as money-spinner;a2 I am thinking of writing a Book of Nonsense Verse in the belief that I might be able to sell more copies than of my more ambitious attempts. Anyway, I have got the lectures half re-typed, and should like to go straight ahead and finish it, butCriterion, TheOctober 1933;c5'Commentary' on Irving Babbitt;a1 mustBabbitt, Irvingcommemorated in Criterion;a7 do a Commentary, a note on Irving Babbitt,2 andHousman, Alfred Edward ('A. E.')The Name and Nature of Poetry;a4 aHousman, Alfred Edward ('A. E.')reviewed;a1 review of A. E. Housman’s Poetry Lecture first.3
IBird, ErnestTSE's consultations with;a2 have been up to town one day, and saw Ernest Bird, who was just leaving for a month’s holiday, asJames, Alfred;a2 is also Alfred James, so not much more will be accomplished till September. But he showed me a letter no I mean I saw a letter of James’s, andEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood)separation from;f1impasse over financial settlement;b5 I had a letter which I showed him, which wouldEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood)mental state;e8post-separation;a8 indicate that V. is taking a more sensible attitude and facing the question of settlements etc., beyond that I have no further communication with her. Ifinances (TSE's)TSE's Income Tax;a1 hope however during the month to get the arrears of Income Tax cleared off, and then shall know my financial position better. IGeorge, Robert Esmonde Gordon ('Robert Sencourt')stirs up situation;b9 have a letter from Robert (Sencourt alias Gordon George) enclosingMorrell, Lady Ottolinestirred up by Gordon George;c8 one from Ottoline to whom he seems to have conveyed the impression thatMonro, Alida (née Klementaski)antipathetic to VHE;b2 I thought Alida had been unkind to V., which is not true – it is merely that I am convinced that Alida has a kind of antipathy towards her – so I am naturally, simply from pride, inclined to keep away from anyone who could possibly be unable to be quite fair to her; but I have got to explain all that to Ottoline; I suspect Robert’s well-meaning tendency to take too much of other people’s affairs upon him. I wish people would leave one’s business alone except when invited – some do and some don’t. It is partly my desire to make it clear that I will not put up with people who formerly professed to be her friends as much as mine, now becoming mine exclusively. OfWoolfs, thecloser to TSE than to VHE;a8 courseMorleys, themore TSE's friend than VHE's;a7 there are some, likeFabers, thecloser to TSE than to VHE;b1 the Woolfs, and the Fabers and Morleys, with whom I have always been more intimate than she.
TheMorleys, thereturn from Norway;a8 Morleys returned from Norway yesterday, looking very healthy, and having enjoyed themselves thoroughly; I am relieved, as I have been afraid of some mishap to one of the children during their absence – of course I had no nominal responsibility, and Mrs. Innes (grandmother) telephoned from Cambridge every day. WePike's FarmTSE's stay with the Eameses extended;a8 decided that if Mrs. Eames my landlady would consent to have me back for a fortnight after her holiday – that would take me to the end of September – still better, if she would have me through October – thentravels, trips and plansTSE's 1933 Faber summer holiday;b1postponed;a2 I could go to the Fabers in Wales for one week, andSociety of the Sacred Mission, Kelham Hall, Nottinghamshire;a2 to Kelham or somewhere for another – and need not bother looking for new lodgings just yet – and the Morleys can put me up for odd nights. Otherwise I shall have to pack up and camp about. This situation could not be permanent, as I have to have supper at the Morleys, and I dislike being a permanent encumbrance on my friends – and I am more or less dependent upon them to get me to and from the station. I cannot make up my mind how long I want to be in the country. The best would be if I could find a country lodging from April to November, and a town lodging in the winter. ToEnglandLondon;h1contrasted to country life;a4 live in the country throughout the winter one needs some vital connexion with it – at least a garden to cherish hopes for the spring: the town is better for the homeless.
If, however, I can make this arrangement for the rest of the summer, then this will be a practical address for letters. I must pluck up courage to tackle Mrs. Eames this afternoon. Although I have said little about it, I find it a very great deprivation not to hear from you. For some weeks, of course, my mind was occupied with wondering about your journey and safe arrival; but of course the moment I heard from you and was reassured on that point, I began to miss your letters, your news, and any glimpse of your feelings and thoughts and moods, most dreadfully. NightHale, Emilytakes TSE's hand in dream;c7 before last I dreamt that I saw you – not that that is so remarkable, but usually you are in the distance – and on this occasion you took my hand – which you had never done before in a dress – and then of course I woke bang up, and didn’t get to sleep again for ever so long.
I am beginning to come to life again; the quiet country life in general, and the visits to Oxford and Winchester were stimulating. I don’t know whether you have noticed a general deadness in my letters hitherto; you would not, I hope, be so Stupid as to infer that the change of scene and the distance and the silence had made any difference in my feelings towards you! IHale, EmilyTSE's love for;x2a pain of sorts;b2 simply felt nothing very much: instinctive self-protection against pain, I think. One simply could not live if one’s emotions and sensibility were wholly awake all the time; there may even be a certain periodicity in it. Do you feel conscious of fluctuations and changes of rhythm, like that? OccasionallyChristianityresignation, reconciliation, peace;c8;a6, veryChristianitymysticism and transcendence;c3arrived at through reconciliation rarely, the periods of heightened life pass for a moment into a mood of peace and reconciliation, a momentary perception of a pattern in life, which one just accepts. This never lasts more than a few minutes, with me. At present I have rather an awareness of the possibilities of spiritualising my ordinary daily life a little more, and of how far I have to go.
When I am sure of my movements for the rest of the summer, I hope that you will write to me again, and I want to get plans for the winter settled, so that I may hope to hear from you regularly – there is so very much I want to hear from you: but I shall want you to write – oh, just what you want to write, and not to please me if you don’t want to. One of the hardest things I have to bear is to have to be at best so much just a spectator, and not be able to feel of use to you – that would be so very lovely and contenting even if you never knew that I was doing anything for you, just to be able to do it.
1.‘Of the Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles’ was first published in Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (Oct. 1939): see Poems II, 18–20. ‘Tom’ is Tom Faber, Geoffrey Faber’s son.
2.‘A Commentary’, Criterion 13 (Oct. 1933), 115–20; repr., in part, as ‘XIII by T. S. Eliot’, in Irving Babbitt: Man and Teacher, ed. Frederick Manchester and Odell Shepard (New York, 1941), 101–4.
3.Review of A. E. Housman, The Name and Nature of Poetry: Criterion 13 (Oct. 1933), 151–4; CProse 5, 557–60.
2.IrvingBabbitt, Irving Babbitt (1865–1933), American academic and literary and cultural critic; Harvard University Professor of French Literature (TSE had taken his course on literary criticism in France); antagonist of Rousseau and romanticism; promulgator (with Paul Elmer More) of ‘New Humanism’. His publications include Literature and the American College (1908); Rousseau and Romanticism (1919); Democracy and Leadership (1924). See TSE, ‘The Humanism of Irving Babbitt’ (1928), in Selected Essays (1950); ‘XIII by T. S. Eliot’, in Irving Babbitt: Man and Teacher, ed. F. Manchester and Odell Shepard (1941): CProse 6, 186–9.
4.ThomasFaber, Thomas Erle ('Tom', TSE's godson) Erle Faber (1927–2004), TSE’s godson and principal dedicatee of Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, was to become a physicist, teaching at Cambridge, first at Trinity, then for fifty years at Corpus Christi. He served too as chairman of the Geoffrey Faber holding company.
3.RobertGeorge, Robert Esmonde Gordon ('Robert Sencourt') Esmonde Gordon George – Robert Sencourt (1890–1969) – critic, historian, biographer: see Biographical Register.
3.AlidaMonro, Alida (née Klementaski) Klementaski (1892–1969) married Harold Monro on 27 Mar. 1920: see Alida Monro in Biographical Register.
4.LadyMorrell, Lady Ottoline Ottoline Morrell (1873–1938), hostess and patron: see Biographical Register.