[No surviving envelope]
I did not fully understand your cable – rather stupid of me – until I got your sad little note of the 31st. I am distressed that my letters should take so long to reach you. it must have been something very exceptional to make a delay of 16 days. Ten days seems the rule, as your letter arrived this morning. I hope that another letter has come since you cabled. I may not always catch the mail; but if there is no better by one mail there ought to be two from the next, as I have written twice this week. I will now try to form the habit of making a tick in my diary on each day that I write.
Ontravels, trips and plansTSE's 1933 westward tour to Scripps;a8TSE reflects on;a9 New Year’s Eve, which I spent alone, IEyre, Mary B.TSE reflects on New Year's Eve at;b6 thought as I always shall until we again spend a New Year’s Eve together, of that strange first New Year’s Eve, at Miss Eyre’s. I wrote to you last on Monday the 6th, after returning from the Morleys – the last weekend with them for some time, as they sail on the 18th for New York. Now I look forward to a weekend at home, and to staying at home and not going out much in the evening until I go to Ireland on the 22nd. Ipoetryrelieves TSE's longing for EH;b3 resentHale, EmilyTSE's love for;x2relieved only by poetry;d9, and always shall, every occupation and engagement – except writing verse – that takes my mind from you; yet you are always with me when I wake and when I go to bed, and I stretch out my arms to where you ought to be, and at this moment you look over my shoulder and put your cheek against mine and I feel the rhythm of your body. I long for more news, andSheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister);e5 toNoyes, Penelope Barker;d1 know what Ada and Penelope have had to say, andHinkleys, the;d9 what the Hinkleys seemed like. AndHale, EmilyTSE fears accident befalling;b5 if I take care not to run unnecessary risks, I must beg you not to undergo unnecessary physical fatigue. Dearest, I do not think you ought to go to see your mother very often; you can do more by praying for her. You have not a very strong constitution, you know, and are too delicately and highly organised nervously, and suffer too keenly from things that most people would not notice. AndHale, Emilyappearance and characteristics;v7EH encouraged to gain weight;a8 I am afraid of your economising too much, and I do worry about you, and I want you to be able to tell me that you have put on ten pounds or more, before long. I hope you do not suffer acutely from the cold.
ThisCulpin, Johanna ('Aunt Johanna', née Staengel)taken to Murder;b5 week I have had to take Jan Culpin to dinner andMurder in the Cathedral1935–6 Mercury Theatre revival;d8compared to Canterbury original;a4 to ‘Murder in the Cathedral’, which I saw for the first time since it opened. They have some new costumes for the Tempters: the same design, which I do not like, but better colours. OneSpaull, Guyas tempter in Murder;a1 new actor (first tempter) who is rather better as tempter, but not nearly so good as knight, as the original[.] Guy Spaull:1 a conscientious actor, but the part does not sit naturally on him. The chorus has improved, and is now about as good as it can be. ISpeaight, Robertin Mercury Theatre production;b4 did not really think Speaight quite so good: but perhaps he has not quite got over the exaggerations he had to put into the part in broadcasting; he roared more, and put too much pathos into the end of the sermon – one almost expected him to burst into tears. I did not tell him so. IDukes, Ashleyhustling in New York;a9 thinkRice, Elmerproduces Federal Theatre Murder;a2 thatMurder in the Cathedralunsolicited 1936 New York production;e2to be directed by Rice;a2 the letters which you will have had by now will have told you all there is to say about the affair with Elmer Rice.2 Dukes should be in New York by the middle of next week (I envy him) and I hope still that there may be some prospects for the company’s going over in March. Becausetravels, trips and plansTSE's 1936 American trip;c4if not spring, then autumn;a3 I should like an excuse for coming: but of course it is possible that we might be able to arrange our time more to suit ourselves in the autumn. It would be nicer if we could be together somehow in the country, than in Boston, where one feels so much in public, compared to London.
IHale, Emilybirthdays, presents and love-tokens;w2TSE has signet ring engraved;c7 will have the ring engraved, though I hate to part with it long enough for that, and I cannot make up my mind just what I want to put on it. It is such a treasure to me, and at every moment when I consciously feel it there on my finger, it is the next best thing to having your own touch on me. When I next see you, I should like our first meeting to be in private, sotravels, trips and plansEH's 1934–5 year in Europe;b4TSE and EH's final weeks in London;f3 that we might run to each other as on that morning when you came in after having been delayed in the fog in Essex – theEnglandLondon;h1Dulwich hallowed in memory;c8 same day that we were so happy in Dulwich. AEnglandLondon;h1its fogs;a5 thick white fog will always remind me of Dulwich, just as a thick smoky fog will always remind me of the afternoon in the City. Dearest Love, I feel always very proud and humble and exalted, but I cannot walk so lightly (though I try to keep my back erect) without my tall girl beside me, holding her arm tightly close to my shoulder. IBurnt NortonTSE too moved to write;a5 work on my poem, with what time I get, though I do not know yet whether it is at all good, or whether I shall be able to complete it in time; perhaps my human feelings are too strong for it.
O my dear Lovely Lady, my own Emily, dear Emily, I will write again before Monday.
TomFaber, Thomas Erle ('Tom', TSE's godson)which consoles him;a6 Faber fell off the banister, at their Welsh house, and had a slight concussion, but is recovering. Hence my letter to him.3
[Enclosure]
—— Rannoch'Rannoch, by Glencoe're-sent with notes;a5.
Here the crow starves, here the patient stag
Breeds for the rifle. Between the soft moor
And the soft sky, scarcely room
To leap or soar. Substance crumbles, in the thin air
Moon cold or moon hot. The road winds in
Listlessness of ancient war,
Languor of broken steel,
Clamour of confused wrong, apt
In silence. Memory is strong
Beyond the bone. Pride snapped,
Shadow of pride is long, in the long pass
No concurrence of bone.— (Ezekiel again)
(This assumes of course, knowledge of the massacre of Glencoe.)
1.Guy Spaull (1904–80), American actor.
2.Murder in the Cathedral, staged for the Federal Theater Project by Halsted Welles and starring the veteran actor Harry Irvine as Becket, was produced by the Popular Price Theater, at the Manhattan Theater (Broadway and 53rd Street, New York), for three weeks from 18 Mar.
The programme recorded: ‘The Federal Theater starts with the objective of employing theater people in the profession for which they have been trained.
‘The far reaching purpose is to establish theaters so vital to community life that they will continue to function after the Federal program is completed.’
3.See letter to Tom Faber, 7 Jan. 1936, with a version of ‘The Naming of Cats’: Letters 8, 24–5.
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.MaryEyre, Mary B. B. Eyre, Professor of Psychology, lived in a pretty frame house on College Avenue, Claremont, where TSE stayed during his visit to EH at Scripps College.
4.ThomasFaber, Thomas Erle ('Tom', TSE's godson) Erle Faber (1927–2004), TSE’s godson and principal dedicatee of Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, was to become a physicist, teaching at Cambridge, first at Trinity, then for fifty years at Corpus Christi. He served too as chairman of the Geoffrey Faber holding company.
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.
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.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.
2.RobertSpeaight, Robert Speaight (1904–77), actor, producer and author, was to create the role of Becket in Murder in the Cathedral in 1935: see Biographical Register.