[No surviving envelope]
I must just write you a note this evening, although I have no particular excuse, having no news of you since Monday; merelyWoolfs, theTSE's Bloomsbury weekend with;c3 because I am going to the Woolfs tomorrow till Monday, and because I shall see you in less than a week, and I shall be fearful if I don’t hear from you before I come.
ADobrée, Bonamyfarewell lunch for;b8 tiring day to-day, as half of it was taken up with seeing Bonamy Dobree off. We gave him lunch at the Three Nuns in Aldgate, in a private room, and talked to him seriously about how he should behave as a lecturer in America – FrankClarke, Tom;a1 producedRead, Herbertat Dobrée's farewell lunch;b3 aFlint, Frank Stuart ('F. S.');a8 veryTandy, Geoffreyat Dobrée's farewell lunch;a6 hard-bittenDavies, Hugh Sykesat Dobrée's farewell lunch;a5 journalist who used to be editor of the Daily Mail, named Tom Clarke1 – the others were Read, Flint, Sykes Davies, Tandy. We drove him down to the Albert Docks afterwards, and left him looking forlorn and innocent on the American Trader, a most unseaworthy looking little boat, and did not get back till half past six. Tandy’sTandys, thewelcome baby daughter;a4 childTandy, Anthea Margaret Crane;a1 arrived yesterday, somewhat unexpectedly though not prematurely, a girl and very healthy.2 IEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother)writes TSE long critical letter;c2 had a long letter from my brother Henry this morning3 – or rather an essay of fourteen closely typed pages – which gives me the impression that I must have been on his nerves for many years – it is a wholly impersonal letter, about my public faults and vices – it makes me suspect that I must have a faculty, unknown to myself, of exasperating some people to the last stage of endurance. It just gives me the tip of a clue to Rebecca West’s feelings! But I sha’n’t [sic] ask for your opinion – or whether I irritate you, or whether you have observed me irritating others, in this way – until you have read the letter, which I am going to ask you to do. He isn’t quarrelling with me. Some of his criticisms I have already made for myself, some of the things he tells me I am quite aware of; others I think may be true; some are just misunderstanding etc. and I have got to sort all this out as best I can. He seems to attribute much of my fault to having lived in a limited society called Bloomsbury. It means at least one whole evening’s work to answer him; and I confess that my first consideration is ‘here is another claim on my time’. I dare say it is salutary, however. But it is more difficult to answer such a letter than to deal with a wholly public criticism – because he knows so much, and yet essentially not enough of my private life – I mean he knows a good deal but not the essentials. Perhaps I annoy you in somewhat the same way? When you thought I was being ‘superior’?
Enough of this for the moment, because, Hurrah, a letter from you has just arrived. When I started this letter I did not intend to tell you that I had put it off as late as I could in the hope that I might have a letter to answer. Thank you for it. IHinkleys, the;d7 am sorry you took all that trouble for the Hinkley’s [sic], because I hear from Susie this morning, and they have cancelled their passage: at the earliest they will take the Aquitania on the 25th. ItCochran, Charles Blake ('C. B.');a1 appears that Cochran4 is being rather evasive about the date of the play. It makes me rather anxious to think of two innocent country mice in the paw of a tough old cat like Cochran: I am afraid now that the play won’t be produced at all; and if it is, I am afraid that Cochran will alter it shamelessly. He is a man who knows what the public wants and wants to give it what it wants: and what a public!! (DoHale, Emilytaken to Tovaritch;f8 you remember those horrible people around us at ‘Tovarisch’?) O dear. But I confess, and I hope you will not think it unkind, that I am glad the Hinkleys will not be present at my last weekend in Campden. If it wasn’t the last time, it would be different. ButEnglandChipping Campden, Gloucestershire;e1TSE jealous of memories associated with;a5 Campden has come to mean such memories to me, that I do not want now to share it with new people.
I shall do my best to get the port glasses exact.
I hope that the lecture went off very well (it is over by now). But only a small part of the audience, at best, will be fully appreciative.
YesDobrée, Bonamydoomed to American lecture tour;b5, Dobrée lectures at Harvard once; but his agent (Colston Leigh) has not given him his full schedule; he only knows that he is also to go to Carolina.
IMurdocks, the;a2 dined with Kenneth Murdock and his wife night before last. But as the hour of the post draws near, that small item will keep.
Thank you for your words about Mary Anderson. I am still doubtful, because, as I say, there is nothing in the book for people who care about the theatre; it is all social chit chat. ThereJames, Henryappears in Mary Anderson's memoirs;b1 are a few notes from Henry James, which read rather ponderously gallant nowadays. She must have been a nice woman (I beg pardon, must be) because of some of the people who seem to have liked her, but she has not the art of making herself real on paper. ButStewart, Charles;a2 the ms. is now being read by another director, Stewart, who is supposed to have a great interest in the stage. The question is, would she sell better here or in the States? IsKendall, Marieconfused with Marie Lloyd;a2 Marie Kendall dead?5 It was a treat to hear her sing ‘A little bit of what you fancy does you good.’6
So now don’t bother to write again. Sotravels, trips and plansEH's 1934–5 year in Europe;b4TSE's Campden birthday weekend;e4 long as I am expected by the 4.45 on Thursday, with port glasses and cheese. ButDevlin, Williamin Peer Gynt;a1 I expect that I shall write again on Monday or Tuesday. DevlinRoberts, Richard Ellis;a4 isBeerbohm, Florence, Lady (née Kahn)in Roberts's Peer Gynt;a2 to take the part of Peer Gynt, and Mrs. Max Beerbohm is in it too.7
1.TomClarke, Tom Clarke: news editor, Daily Mail; editor, News Chronicle; Director of Practical Journalism, King’s College London, 1935–9.
2.AntheaTandy, Anthea Margaret Crane Margaret Crane Tandy, who was to be TSE’s godchild.
3.See Henry Eliot’s letter, 12 Sept. 1935, in Letters 7, 748–63.
4.C. B. CochranCochran, Charles Blake ('C. B.') (1872–1951), English theatrical manager and impresario; successful producer of revues, musicals and plays; collaborator with Noël Coward.
5.Marie Kendall (1873–1964), famous music hall performer and actor.
6.‘A little bit of what you fancy does you good’: music hall song by Fred W. Leigh and George Arthurs. TSE may actually have been thinking of Marie Lloyd singing the song.
7.R. Ellis Roberts’s adaptation of Peer Gynt, starringDevlin, William the young William Devlin (1911–67) – who had been acclaimed for playing King Lear at the age of twenty-two – was directed at the Old Vic Theatre by Henry Cass. Florence Kahn (1878–1951) – Mrs Max Beerbohm – played Ase.
1.TomClarke, Tom Clarke: news editor, Daily Mail; editor, News Chronicle; Director of Practical Journalism, King’s College London, 1935–9.
4.C. B. CochranCochran, Charles Blake ('C. B.') (1872–1951), English theatrical manager and impresario; successful producer of revues, musicals and plays; collaborator with Noël Coward.
1.HughDavies, Hugh Sykes Sykes Davies (1909–84), author and critic; Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge: see Biographical Register
7.R. Ellis Roberts’s adaptation of Peer Gynt, starringDevlin, William the young William Devlin (1911–67) – who had been acclaimed for playing King Lear at the age of twenty-two – was directed at the Old Vic Theatre by Henry Cass. Florence Kahn (1878–1951) – Mrs Max Beerbohm – played Ase.
3.Bonamy DobréeDobrée, Bonamy (1891–1974), scholar and editor: see Biographical Register.
3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: see Biographical Register.
2.F. S. FlintFlint, Frank Stuart ('F. S.') (1885–1960), English poet and translator: see Biographical Register.
5.MarieKendall, Marie Kendall (1873–1964), renowned British music hall artiste and actor.
3.Herbert ReadRead, Herbert (1893–1968), English poet and literary critic: see Biographical Register.
1.RichardRoberts, Richard Ellis Ellis Roberts (1879–1953), author and critic; literary editor of the New Statesman & Nation, 1932–4; Life and Letters Today, 1934; biographer of Stella Benson (1939).
2.AntheaTandy, Anthea Margaret Crane Margaret Crane Tandy, who was to be TSE’s godchild.
2.GeoffreyTandy, Geoffrey Tandy (1900–69), marine biologist; Assistant Keeper of Botany at the Natural History Museum, London, 1926–47; did broadcast readings for the BBC (including the first reading of TSE’s Practical Cats on Christmas Day 1937): see Biographical Register.