[Stamford House, Chipping Campden]
FirstHayward, Johnevening with Spender, Jennings and;d6 ofSpender, Stephenevening with JDH, Jennings and TSE;b3 all, toJennings, Richard;a2 thank you for your note of greeting, which I found last night on returning from an evening with John Hayward, Stephen Spender and Richard Jennings. I wish you might know what pleasure these unexpected notes of greeting give; but I think you must have some notion of it, else you would not trouble to send them. I hope that meanwhile you have received my longer letter from Lingfield, written on Sunday morning: I ask because I did not post it myself, I meant to, but someone else picked it up from the hall table and posted it. ISweeney Agonistes;c1 wonder whether you observed the notice of the Group Theatre in the Times (which does not mention Sweeney).1 IGroup Theatreto produce Timon of Athens;a8 hopeShakespeare, WilliamTimon of Athens;d1 that you will like to see Nugent Monck’s Timon,2 becauseMorleys, the;f4 the Morleys would like to see that too, and I should like to arrange that. IOld Vic, The;a6 enclose a programme of the Old Vic season too.
Second, a disaster. I did not have time to match your port glass last week and left it on the universal valet. On my return Elizabeth reports that she had moved it to the window sill, and that the window had blown open, flung it to the floor where it smashed to bits. It is the first time she has broken anything of mine. The loss of one glass does not signify, but I have lost the pattern. Now if you will please take a piece of paper, outline in pencil the circumference of the rim and of the foot of the glass, and measure its height, then I will get three similar ones for you. Please by return of post. I am sorry to give you this trouble.
Iflowers and floraviolets;d1;a3 am glad the English Violets are satisfactory. Iflowers and florasweet peas;c9;a3 sniffed the Sweet Pea too, but it did not seem to have much scent, and what there was not very reminiscent of sweet pea, so I chose the Violet. And the spray sprays?
I doHinkley, Eleanor Holmes (TSE's first cousin)as EH's friend;b9 think that Eleanor is a loyal friend, both in general and to you; I think also that she appreciates some, if not all, of your quality very keenly. Her not writing is I think as much her mother’s fault as her own. She lives in an artificially protected world where the importance of her own ‘work’ is mangified (I meant to write magnified, but that word looks so nice I must leave it); she does not have, like most of us, to live in a world where there are many people to whom our work means nothing, and others have engaged in sniping at us. IHinkley, Susan Heywood (TSE's aunt, née Stearns)impediment to intimacy with Eleanor;b8 am sure that her mother is constantly coaxing her to neglect correspondence, and to let her write it for her. Of course Eleanor could just as easily have written that note to you as her mother; but one must make allowance for the atmosphere in which she has been kept. It is a wholly mistaken maternal devotion. I have always felt the presence of Aunt Susie as an obstacle preventing me from really knowing Eleanor, and I think coming between Eleanor and all of her friends of both sexes.
I am glad that you have had some fine weather, and happier that you are a little happier. I shall come by the 4.45 on the Thursday without a qualm, really. And thentravels, trips and plansEH's 1934–5 year in Europe;b4EH staying at 19 Rosary Gardens;e8 Rosary Gardens!3 TheEnglandLondon;h1South Kensington street names;c7 story is that the man who built up that bit of Kensington had two daughters named Bina and Rosary, but I cannot vouch for this. I am glad that you will be so near, and hope that the flat will be pleasant and quiet. TomorrowMurdocks, the;a1 I dine with the Murdocks, who are here until January; onDobrée, Bonamyfarewell lunch for;b8 Friday the farewell lunch to Bonamy, at the Three Nuns in Aldgate, with a vehicle to convey the party to the docks – but I mentioned this before; SaturdayWoolfs, theTSE's Bloomsbury weekend with;c3 to Monk’s House, Rodmell near Lewes. Andtravels, trips and plansEH's 1934–5 year in Europe;b4TSE's Campden birthday weekend;e4 then the 4.45. And I hope that this visit will have no clouds over its beginning. ItFaber and Faber (F&F)and Duff Cooper's Haig;c8 appearsHaig, Lady Dorothylegally defanged;a3 now that the agents and solicitors of Lady H. were misinformed as to her authority to use her husband’s diaries; and her solicitors have now made approaches towards a compromise settlement out of court; and Geoffrey and Frank and Generals de Pree and Fisher are to lunch tomorrow and confabulate about it.
ConfidentialAnderson, MaryF&F offered memoir of;a1: Can you give me any opinion about the possible public interest in the Reminiscences of Mary Anderson.4 Is she still alive? They have been offered to us, and I read them this afternoon. The stuff itself is rather small-talk: it begins with her marriage, after her theatrical career left off, and there is little or nothing about the stage, except that she was glad to leave it; she is more concerned with prattling about her grand acquaintances at Broadway and elsewhere: the Duc d’Orleans and BaronHügel, Friedrich vonappears in American actress's memoirs;a3 von Huegel and the Wemyss’s and so forth. But do you think there is any public interest in her now?
1.‘TheGroup Theatreautumn 1935 season announced;a9nDoone, Rupert
‘Other guest producers engaged for the season are Mr Tyrone Guthrie, whose first production, in collaboration with Mr Rupert Doone, will be Mr W. H. Auden’s “political musical comedy” The Dance of Death on October 1; MrMonck, Nugent;a1 Nugent Monck, who will stage Timon of Athens, his first Shakespearian production in London; and Mr John Wyse.’
2.Monck’s production of Timon of Athens had a score by Benjamin Britten.
3.EH was staying at 19 Rosary Gardens, South Kensington, London S.W.7.
4.MaryAnderson, Mary Anderson (1859–1940), successful American stage actor who married in 1890 an American sportsman and barrister named Antonio Fernando de Navarro (1860–1932); they settled in Broadway, Worcs. (near Chipping Campden). Anderson published two volumes of memoirs, neither published by F&F.
4.MaryAnderson, Mary Anderson (1859–1940), successful American stage actor who married in 1890 an American sportsman and barrister named Antonio Fernando de Navarro (1860–1932); they settled in Broadway, Worcs. (near Chipping Campden). Anderson published two volumes of memoirs, neither published by F&F.
3.Bonamy DobréeDobrée, Bonamy (1891–1974), scholar and editor: see Biographical Register.
5.DorothyHaig, Lady Dorothy, Lady Haig (1879–1939), widow of the eminent WW1 military commander Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, KT, GCB, OM, GCVO, KCIE (1861–1928).
11.JohnHayward, John Davy Hayward (1905–65), editor and critic: see Biographical Register.
5.EleanorHinkley, Eleanor Holmes (TSE's first cousin) Holmes Hinkley (1891–1971), playwright; TSE’s first cousin; daughter of Susan Heywood Stearns – TSE’s maternal aunt – and Holmes Hinkley: see Biographical Register.
5.RichardJennings, Richard Jennings (1881–1952), leader writer and literary editor of the Daily Mirror; noted bibliophile. He lived at 8 The Grove, London S.W.5; later at 8 The Little Boltons, S.W.10.
12.Stephen SpenderSpender, Stephen (1909–95), poet and critic: see Biographical Register.