[41 Brimmer St.; forwarded to Ware Farm, West Rindge]

T. S.Eliot
EmilyHale
TS
Faber & Faber Ltd
Friday, 15 May 1931
My dear Lady,

I have been a Bear with a sore head all the first part of the week – though it was some satisfaction that no American mail came at all – your letter was fourteen days on the way – and was certainly a wee one when it came – but having just preached you a sermon on overworking I can hardly complain of your relaxing a bit before the play comes on – furthermore I am magnanimous not to expect you to have written again until say the 11th, having rested over the weekend; so I shall try to wait patiently until to-day week to hear about the performances. I am surprised that you should not have heard from me for so long; I always write something on Tuesdays and usually again on Fridays; but I am now putting an X in my diary for the days on which I write.

Thank you for your 1931–32 announcement, which incidentally tells me that you will be in Boston another winter, and also your address and dates for the summer. But will you be in the heart of a city all the summer, and won’t you get to the country or seaside at all? I don’tAmericaSeattle, Washington State;h1;a1 know Seattle, however, and perhaps it is very pleasant in the summer. Is it with the Perkins’s that you will be staying? and does that mean that your uncle (I am not sure whether he is your uncle or whether it is Mrs. Perkins who is your aunt) is leaving King’s Chapel? I hope not, as evidently it has been a great comfort to you to have them in Boston. YouWare, Mary Lee;a2 speak seldom of Miss Ware, and I imagine that your relations with her are less intimate and perhaps not quite so congenial as with the Perkins’s – tell me if I am wrong. I try to visualise Miss Ware, but I cannot in the least remember what she looks like. But everything past becomes either more real or less real in time, according to its importance.

IAlport, Dr Erich;a1 have Dr. Erich Alport1 of Hamburg, a very intelligent young man, waiting down stairs to see me, and thenBottrall, Ronald;a1 a young man named Bottrill [sc. Bottrall], I think who has become a professor in Helsingfors,2 and then Mac Sweeney is to come to lunch, and weHutchinson, Mary;a1 must go to tea with Mary Hutchinson;3 otherwise this might have been a very long letter; but I will write again a Monday–Tuesday letter – I shall have none from you till Friday.

EvelynUnderhill, Evelyndelights TSE;a3 Underhill (her name, as I only discovered at the end, is Mrs. Stuart-Moore) was delightful – but I will mention that again on Monday. Whatreading (TSE's)sermons of Revd Dr William E. Channing;a3 do you think Ireading (TSE's)Racine's Bérénice;a4 have been reading lately – among other things – sermonsChanning, Revd Dr William ElleryTSE reading sermons by;a1 by the Revd. Dr. Wm. E. Channing (1843) – andRacine, JeanBérénice;a2 Racine’s Bérénice – that is superb –

Dans l’Orient désert quel devint mon ennui! ….

Je demeurais [sic] longtemps errant dans Césarée,

Lieux charmants où mon coeur vous avait adorées …

Que le jour commence et que le jour finisse

Sans que Titus jamais puisse voir Bérénice ….4

WHAT ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPH?

Your Tom.

1.DrAlport, Dr Erich Erich Alport (b. 1903), educated in Germany and at Oxford, was author of Nation und Reich in der politischen Willenbildung des britischen Weltreiches (Berlin, 1933). In the early 1930s Geoffrey Faber often sought his advice about German books suitable for translation into English.

2.RonaldBottrall, Ronald Bottrall (1906–89), poet, critic, teacher and administrator, studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge and became Lektor in English, University of Helsingfors (Helsinki), Finland, 1929–31, before spending two years at Princeton. He was Johore Professor of English at Raffles University, Singapore, 1933–7, and taught for a year at the English Institute, Florence, before serving as British Council Representative in Sweden, 1941–5; Rome, 1945–54; Brazil, 1954–7; Greece, 1957–9; Japan, 1959–61. At the close of his career he was Head of the Fellowships and Training Branch of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations in Rome. His poetry includes The Loosening (1931) and Festivals of Fire (1934).

3.MaryHutchinson, Mary Hutchinson (1889–1977), literary hostess and author: see Biographical Register.

4.TSE runs together two quotations from Racine’s Bérénice:

Antiochus in Act 1, sc. 3:

Dans l’Orient desert quel devint mon ennui!

Je demeurai longtemps errant dans Césarée,

Lieux charmants où mon coeur vous avait adorée.

Bérénice in Act 4, sc. 5:

Que le jour recommence, et que le jour finisse,

Sans que jamais Titus puisse voir Bérénice …

(Oeuvres de Jean Racine: Théatre, vol. 2 (Paris 1931), 161, 191: in TSE Library.)

Alport, Dr Erich, described, lunches with TSE, Cattaui and Roditi, calls on TSE, at the Eliots' tea-party,

1.DrAlport, Dr Erich Erich Alport (b. 1903), educated in Germany and at Oxford, was author of Nation und Reich in der politischen Willenbildung des britischen Weltreiches (Berlin, 1933). In the early 1930s Geoffrey Faber often sought his advice about German books suitable for translation into English.

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
Bottrall, Ronald, accompanies TSE to literary dinner, in Rome,

2.RonaldBottrall, Ronald Bottrall (1906–89), poet, critic, teacher and administrator, studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge and became Lektor in English, University of Helsingfors (Helsinki), Finland, 1929–31, before spending two years at Princeton. He was Johore Professor of English at Raffles University, Singapore, 1933–7, and taught for a year at the English Institute, Florence, before serving as British Council Representative in Sweden, 1941–5; Rome, 1945–54; Brazil, 1954–7; Greece, 1957–9; Japan, 1959–61. At the close of his career he was Head of the Fellowships and Training Branch of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations in Rome. His poetry includes The Loosening (1931) and Festivals of Fire (1934).

Channing, Revd Dr William Ellery, TSE reading sermons by,
Hutchinson, Mary, her friendship compared to OM's, quondam admirer of TSE, enlisted to prevail on VHE, talks theatre and VHE, accompanies TSE to Dance of Death, at TSE's Ritz theatre tea-party, offers EH lunch before rehearsal, takes TSE to see Francis Birrell, issues Irish introductions to TSE, grumbles at Sadler's Wells meeting, on Eyeless in Gaza, accompanies TSE to Olivier's Hamlet, to I Have Been Here Before, to Mourning Becomes Electra, to Three Sisters, her company, accompanies TSE to Duchess of Malfi,
see also Hutchinsons, the

3.MaryHutchinson, Mary Hutchinson (1889–1977), literary hostess and author: see Biographical Register.

Racine, Jean, quoted on plotting, Bérénice,
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,
Underhill, Evelyn, introduced to TSE by her cousin Francis, mentioned by von Hügel, delights TSE, who feels easy in her company, reception at the house of, on TSE's Perkins tea guest-list, sherry-party chez, quizzed on divinity textbooks, her death, TSE's unpublished tribute to, which he sends to The Times, her correspondence surveyed for publication, Worship,

1.EvelynUnderhill, Evelyn Underhill (1875–1941), spiritual director and writer on mysticism and the spiritual life: see Biographical Register.

Ware, Mary Lee, in TSE's recollection, confidant of EH, at West Rindge, travels to Italy, disparaged by TSE, for gilded unworldliness, but TSE repents of disparaging, possibly in Florence, TSE moderates his opinion of, antipathetic to TSE, visited at Rindge, TSE disclaims dislike for, TSE detained from visiting, suffers stroke, dies of second stroke, her will sent to TSE, EH sends memorial for, includes EH in will, and 'the vanished Rindge', her collection of glass flowers,

3.MaryWare, Mary Lee Lee Ware (1858–1937), independently wealthy Bostonian, friend and landlady of EH at 41 Brimmer Street: see Biographical Register.