[No surviving envelope]
This is New Year’s Eve of 1936, andtravels, trips and plansTSE's 1933 westward tour to Scripps;a8TSE reflects on;a9 I am thinking of New Year’s Eve of 1933 at Miss Eyre’s house in College Avenue, Claremont, and of how much has happened since then, in three years. TheHale, Emilycorrespondence with TSE;w3worth TSE getting home early for;g2 chief pleasure I have at present is to come home in good time before dinner (so as to have plenty of time to think of it beforehand) and light the fire, and think that I have the whole evening to myself alone, and can write to my Emily. It is the next best thing to coming back to dress to go out to dinner with you (I shall never enjoy oysters except in your company!) or to having you walk in and sit down with me in the arm chair which I should put in front of the fire. And when I write ‘my Emily’ like that it is still something self-conscious and new, and I feel a little thrill in putting it down, and it is as if I put my arms round you and put my cheek against yours.
ABritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)Barbara Burnham production of Murder;a6 few bits of news first. TheMurder in the Cathedral1936 BBC radio version;d9in rehearsal;a4 rehearsals for the B.B.C. ‘Murder’ on Sunday are going forward, and I went to one this morning.1 ItMurder in the Cathedral1935–6 Mercury Theatre revival;d8in rehearsal;a2 must be veryBrowne, Elliott Martin1935–6 Mercury Theatre Murder revival;a7simultaneously part of BBC production;a3 difficultMercury Theatre, London;b1 for Browne and the others who are doing the Mercury production to turn to do this at the same time, becauseBurnham, Barbaradirects BBC Murder;a1 the Miss Burnham who is directing has rather different ideas and makes them do it in another way. On Friday I shall hear the chorus rehearse, which will be interesting. I wish that you could come with me: I am very conscious of your absence. TheSofaer, Abrahamas one of Murder's tempters;a1 caste [sic] is not quite the same; theyanti-Semitism;b6 have got Abraham Sofaer for one of the tempters: he is a very good actor and has, especially considering that he is a Jew, a lovely voice and an attractive personality. I should like to have him in a play properly. OnSaint-Denis, Michelhas proposal for TSE;a2 ThursdayBrownes, the Martinintroduce TSE to Saint-Denis;a7 I dine with the Browne’s [sic] to meet St. Denis (of the Compagnie des Quinze)2 who, I understand from Browne, will want me to write a play to be produced by the English company he is getting up. Browne speaks of St. Denis as a producer of ‘genius’ but warns me to stipulate that if I do a play for him, St. Denis himself must agree to produce it.
TheMurder in the Cathedralabortive 1936 New York transfer;e1blighted by Brace's actions;a2 New York prospects have met with a possible disaster. IBrace, Donaldsquanders American rights to Murder;a7 askedDukes, Ashleywhich Brace upsets;a7 Donald Brace to deal with production rights in America, because it never occurred to me that there would be any professional production, only various amateur societies. Brace doesn’t know anything about the theatre, and before I had appointed Dukes as my agent, heRice, Elmerproduces Federal Theatre Murder;a2 hadMurder in the Cathedralunsolicited 1936 New York production;e2licensed by Brace;a1 given his provisional permission to Elmer Rice to produce the play with his unemployed professionals – this seems to be some sort of Roosevelt administration relief philanthropy. Brace didn’t understand that this would count as a professional production. I tried to get him to postpone agreement at least until Dukes had been to New York; but meanwhile Rice cabled to Dukes, who lets me know that – things having gone so far – he has given permission for Rice’s lot to do it for two weeks in February.3 As this is philanthropy I only get fifty dollars a week for the fortnight; and the question is, whether this production by out-of-work actors is going to make it impracticable to take the English company over. That can’t be settled until Dukes has been to New York and surveyed the situation: but it is annoying. Of course I should never have asked Brace to look after production rights for me, if I had guessed that they would ever amount to more than amateur societies, church groups, and schools. It is hard on everybody. Itravels, trips and plansTSE's 1936 American trip;c4if not spring, then autumn;a3 still hope that Dukes may find that it is possible to have a proper production: otherwise I shan’t feel able to come over until the autumn.
IMurdock, Kenneth B.;a5 lunchedde Sola Pinto, Vivian;a1 yesterday with Murdock at the Athenaeum, with an academic acquaintance of his, Professor Pinto of Southampton.4 Not very interesting. Murdock strikes me as a sort of cross between a dull dog and a rough diamond. InCarter, Barbara Barclay;a1 theSturzo, Don Luigi;a1 eveningMarshall, Cicely Mary;a1, I found myself obliged to dine at Notting Hill with an odd crew: a Miss Barclay Carter, who was born in California, brought up in Wales, and appears to have spent most of her life in Italy – she talks the language very fluently – a R.C. convert.5 SheMussolini, Benito;a4 houses Don Luigi Sturzo, an Italian priest who was the head of the principal political party opposed to Mussolini, and is now an exile6 – andSteiner, Rudolph;a1 lives with a queer old lady named Miss Marshall,7 also half-Italianate, who is an anthroposophist – a disciple of one Rudolph Steiner.8 Most of the company were Papists, so Miss Marshall’s conversation was all the queerer: e.g. when there was some talk of the fear of death, and its different manifestations in different ages, Miss Marshall suddenly remarked, that the fear of death was something very modern, that the Chaldaeans were much more interested in their previous incarnation than in their next. There was a very queer dog and a rather queer cat, and the cook had left suddenly during the afternoon, andPope-Hennessy, John;a1 there was a queer young man named Sir John Pope-Hennessey [sic],9 and there was talk about Psychic Experience, and Miss Marshall related an experience on a river in Somerset when she rowed under a bridge that wasn’t there; and I was very glad to get home a little after eleven. Besides, the conversation dropped from time to time into Italian, which everyone seemed to speak fluently except myself and one or two others. And dinner consisted of rabbit, full of small bones, and mushrooms.
The weather has been foul. First cold and foggy, then and now wet and gusty – impossible to keep an umbrella up. But tonight it is at least warm and soft, and I think of you shivering in thin clothing in a climate to which you are unaccustomed.
ThereSheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister);e4 hasEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother);c4 been a slight breeze between Ada and Henry, all along of the Cobden-Sandersons.10 ItCobden-Sandersons, the;a1Cobden-Sanderson, Sally
This again is not a very serious letter! I am waiting to [sic] my first letter from you – the one with the daily jottings on the boat. MyHale, Emilybirthdays, presents and love-tokens;w2EH gives TSE a signet ring;c4 dear, I did not tell you – it is the sort of thing that one does not say at the right moment – that several weeks beforehand, I thought how perfect it would be if you would give me a ring to wear, a seal ring – but though I did not say it at the obvious moment, you must believe that I did think of it – for what other present could mean so much? A ring, <except a wedding ring>, is more to a man than to a woman – for if one wears a ring at all it is always, one does not have to consider appropriateness to costumes and to other rings, because one has only one ring and wears that always – this ring means to me all that a wedding ring can mean; and I love to wake up and feel it binding my finger, and know that it will always bind that finger.
1.Broadcast on Sun. 5 Jan. 1936.
2.See letter of 22 Mar. 1935, above.
3.BraceBrace, Donaldsquanders American rights to Murder;a7 had reported on 14 Dec. thatHarcourt, Brace & Co.negotiations over New York Murder;a3, in advance of TSE’s agreement with Ashley Dukes for licensing performances, HarcourtYale Universitynegotiates amateur production of Murder;a6n, Brace had agreed terms with Yale University ($35) and with a number of other out-of-town amateur productions. ‘We also have negotiations under way with Elmer Rice, who is Regional Director for New York of the Federal Theatre Project. This is a government relief project, and after some enquiry from friends who are professional producers, we have quoted a fee of $50 a week …’ On 18 Dec. he cabled TSE that the Federal Theatre Project had already accepted the terms proposed, and indeed had started preparing their production. Although TSE immediately cabled back, ‘think new york production murder inadvisable at present stop london company may come over stop dukes arriving lafayette january sixteenth will see you immediately stop meanwhile no objection outtown performances’, Brace declared that permission had already been promised to Elmer Rice’s organisation, which was for the benefit of unemployed actors. Both Brace and Rice assured TSE that the Federal Theatre production could not possibly damage the prospects of a fully professional production in New York City. Dukes reassured TSE in a letter of 30 Dec. that no one had blundered; using a phrase taken from TSE’s very play, he added: ‘It just happened that Harcourt Brace did the wrong deed for the right reason.’ The Federal Theatre production of Murder in the Cathedral, directed by Edward Goodman, would duly open at the Manhattan Theatre in Jan. 1936.
4.Viviande Sola Pinto, Vivian de Sola Pinto (1895–1969), British literary critic and historian – friend of Siegfried Sassoon, to whom he had been second-in-command in France during WW1 – taught at University College Nottingham, where he was Professor of English, 1938–61. An authority on D. H. Lawrence – editor of The Complete Poems of D. H. Lawrence (with F. Warren Roberts, 1964) – he was to appear for the defence of Penguin Books in the 1960 trial of Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
5.BarbaraCarter, Barbara Barclay Barclay Carter (1900–51), Catholic convert and writer who devoted her career to translation and to the Italian democratic movement under Don Luigi Sturzo.
6.LuigiSturzo, Don Luigi Sturzo (1871–1959), Italian Catholic priest and Christian socialist. Co-founder of the Partito Popolare Italiano in 1919, he was obliged by the rising fascists to go into exile.
7.CicelyMarshall, Cicely Mary Mary Marshall.
8.RudolphSteiner, Rudolph Steiner (1861–1925), Austrian philosopher; esotericist; founder of the movement of anthroposophy: postulating the reality of a spiritual world apprehensible by human senses.
9.JohnPope-Hennessy, John Pope-Hennessy (1913–94), British art historian specialising in the Italian Renaissance; Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 1967–73; Director of the British Museum, 1974–6. Author of Introduction to Italian Sculpture (3 vols, 1955–63).
10.Richard Cobden-Sanderson (1884–1964), printer and publisher; son of the bookbinder and printer, T. J. Cobden Sanderson (1840–1922); grandson of the politician and economist Richard Cobden (1804–65). He launched his business in 1919 and was publisher of the Criterion from its first number in Oct. 1922 until it was taken over by Faber & Gwyer in 1925. He also published three books with introductions by TSE: Le Serpent by Paul Valéry (1924); Charlotte Eliot’s Savanarola (1926); Harold Monro’s Collected Poems (1933). In addition, he produced books by Edmund Blunden and David Gascoyne, editions of Shelley and volumes illustrated by Rex Whistler. His wife was Gwladys (Sally).
6.DonaldBrace, Donald Brace (1881–1955), publisher; co-founder of Harcourt, Brace: see Biographical Register.
4.E. MartinBrowne, Elliott Martin Browne (1900–80), English director and producer, was to direct the first production of Murder in the Cathedral: see Biographical Register.
5.BarbaraCarter, Barbara Barclay Barclay Carter (1900–51), Catholic convert and writer who devoted her career to translation and to the Italian democratic movement under Don Luigi Sturzo.
4.Viviande Sola Pinto, Vivian de Sola Pinto (1895–1969), British literary critic and historian – friend of Siegfried Sassoon, to whom he had been second-in-command in France during WW1 – taught at University College Nottingham, where he was Professor of English, 1938–61. An authority on D. H. Lawrence – editor of The Complete Poems of D. H. Lawrence (with F. Warren Roberts, 1964) – he was to appear for the defence of Penguin Books in the 1960 trial of Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
4.AshleyDukes, Ashley Dukes (1885–1959), theatre manager, playwright, critic, translator, adapter, author; from 1933, owner of the Mercury Theatre, London: see Biographical Register.
3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: see Biographical Register.
1.KennethMurdock, Kenneth B. B. Murdock (1895–1975), Associate Professor of English, Harvard University, 1930–2; Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, 1931–6; Master of Leverett House, 1931–41. Works include Increase Mather (1924), Literature and Theology in Colonial New England (1949); The Notebooks of Henry James (with F. O. Matthiessen, 1947).
9.JohnPope-Hennessy, John Pope-Hennessy (1913–94), British art historian specialising in the Italian Renaissance; Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 1967–73; Director of the British Museum, 1974–6. Author of Introduction to Italian Sculpture (3 vols, 1955–63).
8.ElmerRice, Elmer Rice, born Elmer Leopold Reizenstein (1892–1967), playwright, socialist, screenwriter, enjoyed Broadway success with plays including On Trial (1914), The Adding Machine (1923) and Street Scene (1929; Pulitzer Prize for Drama). He was the first director of the New York office of the Federal Theater Project. See too The Living Theatre (1960); Minority Report (autobiography, 1964).
2.CompagnieSaint-Denis, Michel des Quinze: theatre production company organised by Michel Saint-Denis (nephew of Jacques Copeau), together with the playwright André Obey, at the Théatre du Vieux-Colombier, Paris, 1929–34.
2.AdaSheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister) Eliot Sheffield (1869–1943), eldest of the seven Eliot children; author of The Social Case History: Its Construction and Content (1920) and Social Insight in Case Situations (1937): see Biographical Register.
8.RudolphSteiner, Rudolph Steiner (1861–1925), Austrian philosopher; esotericist; founder of the movement of anthroposophy: postulating the reality of a spiritual world apprehensible by human senses.
6.LuigiSturzo, Don Luigi Sturzo (1871–1959), Italian Catholic priest and Christian socialist. Co-founder of the Partito Popolare Italiano in 1919, he was obliged by the rising fascists to go into exile.