[41 BrimmerHale, Emilyvisits West Rindge;a6 St.; forwardedAmericaWest Rindge, New Hampshire;h9EH holidays at;a1 to Ware Farm, West Rindge, NH]
I was grievously disappointed this morning to have no American mail in – just as it seemed that letters were travelling more quickly, and the weather not being stormy, there seemed no excuse for delays. I always hope for your letter on Monday, as that gives me (as well as something to look forward to over the weekend) two mornings in which to reply before the mail goes out; and I try particularly to keep Tuesday morning clear for writing to you. So if a letter comes tomorrow, I may not have much time, and the mail will have gone. I also always prefer to have a new letter from you under my eyes as I write at the beginning of the week; and then I like to write a supplementary letter a few days later.
IHale, Emilyas actor;v8as Judith Bliss in Hay Fever;a4 thought of your Judith part every night during the performances. I suppose it will be a fortnight before I can have any report from you of the performances. Will the photograph, I wonder, be wearing the new Judith evening dress? I hope it actually has been taken.
I am lunching to-day with Canon UnderhillUnderhill, Revd Francis, Bishop of Bath and Wellsintroduces TSE to his cousin Evelyn;a5 to meet his cousin, Miss EvelynUnderhill, Evelynintroduced to TSE by her cousin Francis;a1 Underhill, who is a great authority on mysticism.1 (I think Baron von HügelUnderhill, Evelynmentioned by von Hügel;a2 mentions her). Yesterday I should have gone to a performance of Coriolanus, but didn’t – it was in Chelsea and at 11 in the morning, and when the time came I grudged the time.2 IWarren, Austin;a1 am taking to lunch also a young American3 – a pupil of Paul More, whoMore, Paul Elmergreatly preferred to Irving Babbitt;a1 I expect to see next week – More is a very good friend of mine, and we correspond desultorily on theological topics.4 HeBabbitt, Irvingcompared to Paul More;a2 is much more possible as a ‘friend’ than Babbitt, who, with all his virtues, is arrogant and overbearing, and insists on master-and-disciple as the only relation possible;5 whilst More is genuinely humble and modest and disillusioned and almost a Christian, and likes cocktails and bridge. I imagine that there will be few American visitors this year – I fear that Mr. Noyes6 will be too feeble to come again.
Which reminds me – you will see why – that the little snapshot you sent me improves upon acquaintance – or I manage to supply more of you to it. AndSitwell, Edithwhich likeness TSE presently disclaims;a3 you don’t really look like Edith Sitwell in detail.
INattier, Jean-MarcEH's resemblance to portraits by;a1 always used to find a generic resemblance to you in some of the portraits of Nattier – do you know any – a French painter who did all the beauties and little princesses and duchesses of Louis XV’s court – resemblance not in character and personality, but in physical type – so I think you do look rather French.7 What connects this with the Noyes’s is that several years ago, when they were here, PenelopeNoyes, Penelope Barkershows TSE familiar snapshot of EH;a2 bought out a small book of snapshots – mostly of her travels I think, but I suddenly came across one of you, somewhere in the country, kneeling with your hand on the head of a dog – do you remember it – it was rather lovely though not very distinct. I wish I had some of that kind, but I want the proper portrait most.
1.EvelynUnderhill, Evelyn Underhill (1875–1941), spiritual director and writer on mysticism and the spiritual life: see Biographical Register.
2.William Poel mounted an abbreviated and rearranged production of Coriolanus at the Chelsea Palace Theatre.
3.AustinWarren, Austin Warren (1899–1986), literary critic, author and educator. Educated at Wesleyan University, Harvard, and Princeton, he taught from 1926 at Boston University. In 1930–1, sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies, he was researching in London, where he was introduced to TSE. His works included Alexander Pope as Critic and Humanist (1929); Richard Crashaw: A Study in the Baroque Sensibility (1939); and, with René Wellek, The Theory of Literature (1949). He later taught at the University of Michigan, 1948–68.
4.PaulMore, Paul Elmer Elmer More (1864–1937), critic, scholar, philosopher: see Biographical Register.
5.See TSE’s contribution to Irving Babbitt: Man and Teacher, ed. Frederick Manchester and Odell Shepherd (1941)
6.JamesNoyes, James Atkins Atkins Noyes (1857–1945), mutual acquaintance in Cambridge, Mass., pursued library and genealogical work, 1895–1905; a great clubman. Father of EH’s friend Penelope Noyes.
7.Jean-Marc Nattier (1685–1766), official painter to Louis XV, whose daughters he painted.
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.PaulMore, Paul Elmer Elmer More (1864–1937), critic, scholar, philosopher: see Biographical Register.
6.JamesNoyes, James Atkins Atkins Noyes (1857–1945), mutual acquaintance in Cambridge, Mass., pursued library and genealogical work, 1895–1905; a great clubman. Father of EH’s friend Penelope Noyes.
12.PenelopeNoyes, Penelope Barker Barker Noyes (1891–1977), who was descended from settlers of the Plymouth Colony, lived in a historic colonial house (built in 1894 for her father James Atkins Noyes) at 1 Highland Street, Cambridge, MA. Unitarian. She was a close friend of EH.
2.EdithSitwell, Edith Sitwell (1887–1964), poet, biographer, anthologist, novelist: see Biographical Register.
1.EvelynUnderhill, Evelyn Underhill (1875–1941), spiritual director and writer on mysticism and the spiritual life: see Biographical Register.
2.Revd Francis UnderhillUnderhill, Revd Francis, Bishop of Bath and Wells, DD (1878–1943), TSE’s spiritual counsellor: see Biographical Register.
3.AustinWarren, Austin Warren (1899–1986), literary critic, author and educator. Educated at Wesleyan University, Harvard, and Princeton, he taught from 1926 at Boston University. In 1930–1, sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies, he was researching in London, where he was introduced to TSE. His works included Alexander Pope as Critic and Humanist (1929); Richard Crashaw: A Study in the Baroque Sensibility (1939); and, with René Wellek, The Theory of Literature (1949). He later taught at the University of Michigan, 1948–68.