[Villa Pestillini, 32 via della Piazzola, Firenze]

T. S.Eliot
EmilyHale
TS
Faber & Faber Ltd
16 March 1935
Dearest Emilie,

Your letter of March 13 arrived quickly – yesterday; andPudney. JohnJoseph: A Play;a1 again I was unable to reply the same day because I had to go in the evening to an amateur performance of John Pudney’s little play.1 IScripps College, Claremontrefuses EH's return;e6 am grateful to you for writing again so quickly, in order to give me your news from Claremont; and I am more heart-broken than I can say to hear the news, though, from what had gone before, andJaqua, Ernest J.obstructs EH's return to Scripps;a2 from what you said about Jaqua, I was not unprepared. I still don’t understand the dessous du décor, the motives which went to it, whether anyone had an interest to keep you out, or to keep somebody else in, even though the salary is so shamefully poor for anybody; I only understand that Jaqua is a weakling and easily bullied or cajoled by an interest. Has it anything to do with that wealthy woman who liked giving lectures – no, I am rather vague about her at the moment, butGalitzi, Dr Christine;b9 I remember that that had to do with Christine Galitizi’s position, not yours. I can’t understand it; but as I can’t do anything about it, whether I understand or not is a detail. I have reproached myself for not having foreseen something of the sort, and for not having urged you to write Claremont immediately after our conversation that evening at Boulestin’s Restaurant. I might have foreseen the dangers of delay. AfterAmericaCalifornia;d3TSE masters dislike of;b9 all, I had overcome my dislike of California in general, and seen that it was best that at least for this next year you should go back to a place you knew, where you were relatively happy, in being useful, and popular, and having some congenial colleagues. I see now so painfully well what a cross the only alternative will be, since it is too late to find a new post for next year. I have to keep a hand on myself not to waste energy raging against the situation and against my own impotence to do anything about it. When I see you, I should like to discuss how you are to deal with the next year, and what you are to do to alter the situation thereafter. And as I can meanwhile do nothing about by thinking about it, I must simply try not to think about it.

I can’t try, my dear, to write about anything else in this letter; anything I have to say seems so trivial. OOliver, F. S.Endless Adventure;a2 yesreading (TSE's)Oliver's Endless Adventure (vol. 3);d8 – just for a diversion – the only book that I have read lately – I mean just out of curiosity, picking it up, at the club, after lunch, as one would a detective story and then finding myself so engrossed that I went on reading till teatime (it was on a Saturday) was the third, posthumous volume of F. S. Oliver’s ‘Endless Adventure’. IPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle)recommended Endless Adventure;b5 think it would interest Dr. Perkins – an essay in political theory; OliverOliver, F. S.as friend to The Criterion;a1 wrote the best book about Alexander Hamilton, and he was a very kind friend to me – and put up £750 once to keep the Criterion going at a time when it would otherwise have died.2

I can mention this unimportant fact; but I can’t go on after this to talk about myself; my dear, my dear, I am so terribly sorry.

ton humble
Tom

AldousHuxley, Aldoussuffering from insomnia;b2’ insomnia has been so bad that he has had to flee to Switzerland – leaving Maria behind to try to dispose of the flat in Albany. I am very sorry, I wish they could have stayed in London.

1.JohnPudney. John Pudney (1909–77), poet and journalist, went to Gresham’s School, Holt, Norfolk, with W. H. Auden and Benjamin Britten. In his early career he worked intermittently for the Listener, the BBC and the News Chronicle; later he found success with a plethora of short stories, TV and radio plays, children’s books and ten adult novels. Works include Collected Poems (1957). See Pudney, Home and Away (1960) and Thank Goodness for Cake (1978); Frederick Alderson, ‘John and “Johnny”: John Pudney 1909–1977’, London Magazine, 21: 9/10 (Dec. 1981/Jan. 1982), 79–87.

The play that TSE mentions is presumably Joseph: A Play.

2.F. S. OliverOliver, F. S. (1864–1934), businessman, author, polemicist: see Biographical Register.

The Endless Adventure (3 vols, 1930–5) surveys English politics through the lifetime of Sir Robert Walpole (1676–1745). Alexander Hamilton: An Essay on American Union (1906).

America, TSE on not returning in 1915, and TSE as transatlantic cultural conduit, dependence on Europe, TSE's sense of deracination from, and the Great Depression, TSE a self-styled 'Missourian', as depicted in Henry Eliot's Rumble Murders, its national coherence questioned, its religious and educational future, versus Canadian and colonial society, where age is not antiquity, drinks Scotland's whisky, and FDR's example to England, underrates Europe's influence on England, redeemed by experience with G. I.'s, TSE nervous at readjusting to, and post-war cost of living, more alien to TSE post-war, its glories, landscape, cheap shoes, its horrors, Hollywood, climate, lack of tea, overheated trains, over-social clubs, overheating in general, perplexities of dress code, food, especially salad-dressing, New England Gothic, earthquakes, heat, the whistle of its locomotives, 'Easter holidays' not including Easter, the cut of American shirts, television, Andover, Massachusetts, EH moves to, Ann Arbor, Michigan, TSE on visiting, Augusta, Maine, EH stops in, Baltimore, Maryland, and TSE's niece, TSE engaged to lecture in, TSE on visiting, Bangor, Maine, EH visits, Bay of Fundy, EH sailing in, Bedford, Massachusetts, its Stearns connections, Boston, Massachusetts, TSE tries to recollect society there, its influence on TSE, its Museum collection remembered, inspires homesickness, TSE and EH's experience of contrasted, described by Maclagan, suspected of dissipating EH's energies, EH's loneliness in, Scripps as EH's release from, possibly conducive to TSE's spiritual development, restores TSE's health, its society, TSE's relations preponderate, TSE's happiness in, as a substitute for EH's company, TSE's celebrity in, if TSE were there in EH's company, its theatregoing public, The Times on, on Labour Day, Brunswick, Maine, TSE to lecture in, TSE on visiting, California, as imagined by TSE, TSE's wish to visit, EH suggests trip to Yosemite, swimming in the Pacific, horrifies TSE, TSE finds soulless, land of earthquakes, TSE dreads its effect on EH, Wales's resemblance to, as inferno, and Californians, surfeit of oranges and films in, TSE's delight at EH leaving, land of kidnappings, Aldous Huxley seconds TSE's horror, the lesser of two evils, Cannes reminiscent of, TSE masters dislike of, land of monstrous churches, TSE regrets EH leaving, winterless, its southern suburbs like Cape Town, land of fabricated antiquities, Cambridge, Massachusetts, TSE's student days in, socially similar to Bloomsbury, TSE lonely there but for Ada, TSE's happiness in, exhausting, EH's 'group' in, road safety in, Casco Bay, Maine, TSE remembers, Castine, Maine, EH holidays in, Cataumet, Massachusetts, EH holidays in, Chicago, Illinois, EH visits, reportedly bankrupt, TSE on, TSE takes up lectureship in, its climate, land of fabricated antiquities, Chocurua, New Hampshire, EH stays in, Concord, Massachusetts, EH's househunting in, EH moves from, Connecticut, its countryside, and Boerre, TSE's end-of-tour stay in, Dorset, Vermont, EH holidays in, and the Dorset Players, Elizabeth, New Jersey, TSE on visiting, Farmington, Connecticut, place of EH's schooling, which TSE passes by, EH holidays in, Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, EH recuperates in, Gerrish Island, Maine, TSE revisits, Hollywood, perceived debauchery of its movies, TSE's dream of walk-on part, condemned by TSE to destruction, TSE trusts Murder will be safe from, Iowa City, Iowa, TSE invited to, Jonesport, Maine, remembered, Kittery, Maine, described, Lexington, Massachusetts, and the Stearns family home, Lyndeborough, New Hampshire, visited by EH, Madison, Wisconsin, Aurelia Bolliger hails from, Ralph Hodgson sails for, EH summers in, as conceived by TSE, who eventually visits, Maine, its coast remembered by TSE, TSE recalls swimming off, Minneapolis, on EH's 1952 itinerary, TSE lectures in, New Bedford, Massachusetts, EH's holidays in, TSE's family ties to, New England, and Unitarianism, more real to TSE than England, TSE homesick for, in TSE's holiday plans, architecturally, compared to California, and the New England conscience, TSE and EH's common inheritance, springless, TSE remembers returning from childhood holidays in, its countryside distinguished, and The Dry Salvages, New York (N.Y.C.), TSE's visits to, TSE encouraged to write play for, prospect of visiting appals TSE, as cultural influence, New York theatres, Newburyport, Maine, delights TSE, Northampton, Massachusetts, TSE on, EH settles in, TSE's 1936 visit to, autumn weather in, its spiritual atmosphere, EH moves house within, its elms, the Perkinses descend on, Aunt Irene visits, Boerre's imagined life in, TSE on hypothetical residence in, EH returns to, Peterborough, New Hampshire, visited by EH, TSE's vision of life at, Petersham, Massachusetts, EH holidays in, TSE visits with the Perkinses, EH spends birthday in, Edith Perkins gives lecture at, the Perkinses cease to visit, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, TSE on, and TSE's private Barnes Foundation tour, Independence Hall, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, surrounding countryside, Portsmouth, Maine, delights TSE, Randolph, New Hampshire, 1933 Eliot family holiday in, the Eliot siblings return to, Seattle, Washington State, EH summers in, EH's situation at, TSE prefers to California, EH repairs to post-Christmas, EH visits on 1952 tour, EH returns to, Sebasco, Maine, EH visits, South, the, TSE's first taste of, TSE's prejudices concerning, St. Louis, Missouri, TSE's childhood in, TSE's homesickness for, TSE styling himself a 'Missourian', possible destination for TSE's ashes, resting-place of TSE's parents, TSE on his return to, the Mississippi, compared to TSE's memory, TSE again revisits, TSE takes EVE to, St. Paul, Minnesota, TSE on visiting, the Furness house in, Tryon, North Carolina, EH's interest in, EH staying in, Virginia, scene of David Garnett's escapade, and the Page-Barbour Lectures, TSE on visiting, and the South, Washington, Connecticut, EH recuperates in, West Rindge, New Hampshire, EH holidays at, White Mountains, New Hampshire, possible TSE and EH excursion to, Woods Hole, Falmouth, Massachusetts, TSE and EH arrange holiday at, TSE and EH's holiday in recalled, and The Dry Salvages, TSE invited to, EH and TSE's 1947 stay in, EH learns of TSE's death at,
see also American Presidential Election
Galitzi, Dr Christine, in line for Ariel poem, favoured among EH's Claremont friends, encloses flower in letter, sends TSE photographs, and possible Greek translation of The Waste Land, her mannerisms, EH warned against imitating, asks TSE to communicate with imprisoned husband, her marriage, writes to TSE about husband,

1.DrGalitzi, Dr Christine Christine Galitzi (b. 1899), Assistant Professor of French and Sociology, Scripps College. Born in Greece and educated in Romania, and at the Sorbonne and Columbia University, New York, she was author of Romanians in the USA: A Study of Assimilation among the Romanians in the USA (New York, 1968), as well as authoritative articles in the journal Sociologie româneascu. In 1938–9 she was to be secretary of the committee for the 14th International Congress of Sociology due to be held in Bucharest. Her husband (date of marriage unknown) was to be a Romanian military officer named Constantin Bratescu (1892–1971).

Huxley, Aldous, critiques 'Thoughts After Lambeth', drops in on the Eliots, the man versus the writer, TSE pronounces on, dismissed as novelist, his irreligion, signatory to Credit Reform letter, invigorating company, concurs with TSE on California, suffering from insomnia, and the Christian attitude to war, always charms TSE, pacifist efforts, as playwright, Brave New World, Eyeless in Gaza, The World of Light, TSE enjoys, compared to Hay Fever, EH reads and comments on, TSE reflects on, Those Barren Leaves,
see also Huxleys, the

10.AldousHuxley, Aldous Huxley (1894–1963), novelist, poet, essayist: see Biographical Register.

Jaqua, Ernest J., obstructs EH's return to Scripps, weaselly letter returned to EH,

40.DrJaqua, Ernest J. Ernest J. Jaqua (1882–1974), first President of Scripps College, 1927–42.

Oliver, F. S., as friend to The Criterion, Endless Adventure,

2.F. S. OliverOliver, F. S. (1864–1934), businessman, author, polemicist: see Biographical Register.

Perkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle), wished speedy recovery, Perkins household apparently restored, and TSE's King's Chapel address, at first Norton lecture, writes about second Norton lecture, supplied with tobacco, unused to intelligent opposition, suggests title for Murder, recommended Endless Adventure, TSE on, novelty birthday-present suggested for, comes by The Achievement of T. S. Eliot, once again preaching, his accent, his versus Eliot-family Unitarianism, reports on TSE from Aban Court, remarks on photograph of TSE, his Pastor Emeritus position endangered, starved of male company, more remote with age, donates Eliotana to Henry's collection, relations with Aunt Edith, ailing, altered with age, and Campden memories, sends photograph of EH portrait, on 1946 reunion with TSE, withdrawn, according to EH, honoured by bas-relief, celebrates 86th birthday, feared for, celebrates 87th birthday, thanks EH for her help, his final illness, dies, elegised by TSE, funeral, obituary and funeral, obituary, TSE receives old clothes of, Miss Lavorgna on, apparently communicated in Anglican churches, Annals of King's Chapel,
see also Perkinses, the

3.DrPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle) John Carroll Perkins (1862–1950), Minister of King’s Chapel, Boston: see Biographical Register.

Pudney. John, Joseph: A Play,

1.JohnPudney. John Pudney (1909–77), poet and journalist, went to Gresham’s School, Holt, Norfolk, with W. H. Auden and Benjamin Britten. In his early career he worked intermittently for the Listener, the BBC and the News Chronicle; later he found success with a plethora of short stories, TV and radio plays, children’s books and ten adult novels. Works include Collected Poems (1957). See Pudney, Home and Away (1960) and Thank Goodness for Cake (1978); Frederick Alderson, ‘John and “Johnny”: John Pudney 1909–1977’, London Magazine, 21: 9/10 (Dec. 1981/Jan. 1982), 79–87.

reading (TSE's), The Road Back, Hay Fever, sermons of Revd Dr William E. Channing, Racine's Bérénice, in general, the Bible, The Witch of Edmonton again, letters of other authors, a life of Mohammed, a life of Calvin, R. S. Wilson's life of Marcion the Heretic, Living My Life, French detective stories, French novels, recent books on economics and finance, the Epistles of St. Paul, The Lady of the Lake, Letters of Charles Eliot Norton, never deeply or widely enough, The Scarab Murder Case, translation of Dante, detective stories, Letters of Mrs Gaskell and Charles Eliot Norton, second-rate detective story, disinterestedly, for leisure, Vision of God, Faith of a Moralist, Newman's sermons, Birds of the Countryside, Modern Reader's Bible, The Face of Death, René Bazin's Charles de Foucauld, Charles Petrie's Monarchy, Thurber's My Life and Hard Times, Oliver's Endless Adventure (vol. 3), Madame Sorel's memoirs, book on French policing, detective story for committee, The League of Frightened Men, The Garden Murder Case, The Luck of the Bodkins, The House in Paris, The Life of Charles Gore, Middleton Murry's Shakespeare, Dr Goebbels for book committee, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, MS of German gunman in Chicago, Shakespeare, to replenish, Middlemarch, the Gospel, City of God, St. John of the Cross, psalm or two a day, Ibsen, Twenty Best Plays of the Modern American Theatre, poems submitted to Criterion, My Name is Million, psalms, especially Psalm 130, Edmund Burke, Lives of the Poets, Virgil,
Scripps College, Claremont, EH headhunted to teach at, but EH declines post, still a possibility, TSE on whether or not to accept post, which EH does, TSE hopes to visit EH at, sounds picturesque, EH expects suite at, EH reassured about feeling 'inadequate', EH arrives at, TSE asks for full report of, grows on EH, EH's all-arts theatrical workshop at, TSE's lecture at, TSE's desire to deliver EH from, TSE's visit to, its suspicious characters, its effect on EH despaired of, year's leave requested from, EH considers returning to, encouraged by TSE to return, despite TSE forswearing, refuses EH's return, EH on not returning, under Jaqua, EH's existence at, EH's extra-curricular work at, preferred to Smith, bequeathed EH's TSE book collection, compared to Concord Academy,