[No surviving envelope]
Your letter of the 7th came this morning to Russell Square (and by the way, in writing to that address, please remember to put PRIVATE on the envelope, because there is always a chance of letters otherwise being opened by someone in the office, especially when there is a new secretary <stillO'Donovan, Brigid;a8 Miss O’D. however>) and I am again distressed to know that you have had so little from me; and as until lately I have not been keeping a record, I do not know how many letters you ought to have received. My record begins on the 6th January, and says that I wrote on that date, twice on the 10th, on the 13th, 14th, and tonight. I am marking the envelope of this ‘per S. S. Bremen’ which I see is due to take up mails on Saturday, and I want you to let me know if you get it any sooner. And hereafter, if you do cable to say you have not heard, I shall be able to tell you the dates of posting. And I shall continue to mark them for special ships to see if that accelerates them. And I have been expecting you to get two by one mail! Well now I hope there will be a shower. For I tell you that my greatest happiness after a day’s work, and writing, and interviews, is to know that I am coming back to have the evening to myself and you. AndHale, Emilycorrespondence with TSE;w3TSE specially treasures recent 'love letters';g4 now that I have too many letters to carry in my pockets, I am going to put a layer of brown paper in my box, over all the piles of letters before November 18th, and keep the later ones on top to re-read from time to time, all of them, the ones I can really and truly call my love letters! It is something that in one way I shall never get used to, certainly never ‘take for granted’; and on the other hand it seems, as it did every moment that we were together, so completely natural and simple and right.
WellBrownes, the Martin;a8, IDukes, Ashleyhustling in New York;a9 am waiting eagerly to hear what Dukes has been up to, and I expect to dine with the Brownes on February 3d, with him as soon as he is back. Itravels, trips and plansTSE's 1936 American trip;c4spring arrival dependent on New York Murder;a2 do hope that the play will be put on as he intended, chiefly because I should have the excuse of coming in the spring. But I don’t know how soon it would be, and I don’t know whether at that time we could easily make arrangements to have each others company uninterrupted, which is all that I want, as we could if I came in September? It will be more wonderful than any previous meeting with you, after separation, because this time there has been greater pain of separation to make up for, and because we shall meet as the parts of one person coming together again.
My fountain pen is getting worse and worse – it spouted when I took the cap off.
TheMorleys, theleave for New York;f7 Morleys leave on Saturday morning – I have supper with them tomorrow night – andMorley, Frank Vigor;e9 heBrace, Donaldreceives Burnt Norton from Morley;a8 will take with him to give to Donald Brace to set up for the American edition of my new collection, the ms. of the ‘Burnt Norton’ poem, which I think is about allright.1 HeBurnt Norton'our' first poem;a8 likes it, and has made a few useful criticisms. I hope it is good, because I call this our poem, instead of one of my poems for you – do you remember your remark about Tschaikovsky at the Furtwangler concert? I think I had better say, ‘our first poem’, because I hope to write better and better ones. ButCollected Poems: 1909–1935Burnt Norton's signficance within;a3 this one is necessary to round off the second part of the Collected Poems, and to indicate, with ‘Murder’, a ‘new period’. ItsBurnt Nortonas 'quartet';a9 notBeethoven, Ludwig vaninspires Burnt Norton;a5 a symphony, but rather a quartette for strings, but now that I aim to put my full orchestra into plays, I am interested in writing poems with a small number of instruments, and to try to see if one cannot get as big effects in this way as Beethoven did with his late quartettes, which seem to me just as grand as the symphonies. TheWaste Land, Thecompared to Burnt Norton;b1 five-part structure is similar to ‘The Waste Land’, otherwise it is very dissimilar, and I think it cuts deeper. ThereHeraclitus;a2 isSt. John of the Crossin Burnt Norton;a2 theFlaubert, Gustave'Tentation de S. Antoine' and Burnt Norton;a1 reference to Heraclitus, and there are passages from St. John of the Cross, and a reference to Flaubert’s ‘Tentation de S. Antoine’,2 and a passage in the underground station at Gloucester Road; and besides that a good deal that you and no one else will identify.
IIrelandaccording to TSE's prejudice;a1 shall take a hot water bottle to Ireland, though whether there is any hot water there, or any chauffage3 except peat and poteen, I do not know. I haven’t worn woolen underwear for two years; I tried aertex woven merino first, but last winter I was much happier in cotton underwear, ordinary aertex vest and shorts. I wear except for formal occasions, soft woolen shirts over it. But woolen underwear irritates my skin so, I cannot stand it. Do you wear ‘knit underwear’? and doesn’t it scratch dreadfully? I was very comfortable and healthy last winter, and expect to be through this. It has been very cold of late, and tonight it is snowing – but melting as soon as it touches the pavement. My cold after Rochester was I think due entirely to fatigue – though if I had not gone to Rochester I might have overcome it – and I think emotional exhaustion – during the last three weeks the shadow of your departure. When our relations were, or seemed, one-sided, then the deprivation of your company was offset by the strain of being in your company: but when they became mutual, then being in your company was perfect peace and contentment but was offset by the strain, the increasing strain, of our approaching separation. IUnderhill, Revd Francis, Bishop of Bath and Wells;c7 did not talk to Underhill about us, on this occasion – it did not of course enter into my confession, as there was nothing to confess! except whether it was wrong to allow one’s mind to be so engrossed by the thought of a person from whom one was separated, about which he reassured me – because I had very little time alone with him, in the ordinary way, and because everything was too recent for me to want to discuss it yet.
Of course, during the two days spent in bed, I longed desperately for your visits, and could almost see you sitting on the edge of the bed, leaning over me, and stroking my forehead with the cool fresh loveliness of your delicate hand, which I long to kiss again; and also (one has odd thoughts) IHale, Emilyrelationship with TSE;w9EH kissed on the right foot;e6 wish that when I had the opportunity I did not kiss the sole of your foot as well as the toes – next time the other, the left foot, please. AndHale, Emilyappearance and characteristics;v7her hair;d4 when you brush your hair tonight please think of my hand holding the brush – and I should not dare to touch your hair directly after you had had it waved – but the evening before you were going to have it waved – because I should like to run my fingers through and massage your scalp gently before brushing and combing it – and I assure you that it is beautiful hair, the black which is really (when the sun strikes it right) a very dark brown – and I should be standing behind you as you sat, and looking down into your face and occasionally leaning down to kiss your nose.
I accept as right your admonitions about health and about work. I am very slow to grasp situations, but I am beginning to realise that I must husband my strength for the things that are most worth while for me to do. I do need you with me to tell me what to do and what not to do. I remain very diffident about the value of what I write; and anybody’s claim upon me seems more important than my right to use my time to please myself. IMorley, Frank Vigorgood with thrusting young authors;f1 have had three young men taking up my afternoon – two visitors and one long telephone conversation; apparently there is no one else in London to take on this sort of duty except Morley, and of course they aim at me rather than him; andPierce, Ross E.dumps verse on TSE;a1 tomorrow after lunch I have to interview a young man from Buffalo N.Y. who has dumped upon me about 600 neatly typed pages of verse, and who told Miss O’D. to-day that he had come to England in order to see me, and that he didn’t have enough money to get back.4 He expects to make money here by selling poetry; and I suppose I shall have to hand him over to the American consul to return. And I am busy writing my addresses for Dublin. Itravels, trips and plansTSE's 1936 visit to Ireland;c1TSE's itinerary;a1 take the night boat on Wednesday next, the 22nd, and I look forward with some curiosity to the meeting, atSavage, Roland Buke, SJ;a1 whichHogan, Professor J. J.;a1 IGrogan, Vincent B.;a1 am to reply to Father Burke Savage S.J.5 and be followed by Father Hogan6 and Dr. Drogan [sc. Grogan]7 and Professor Maloney and all. I expect there will be wigs on the green,8 because the subject is ‘Irish Literature at the Cross Roads’; andYeats, William Butler ('W. B.')defended at UCD;b7 FatherJoyce, Jamesdefended by TSE at UCD;c3 Savage is very acid about Yeats because Yeats is a pagan (I rather sympathise there, but I must stand up for Yeats too) and doesn’t mention Joyce; and I shall certainly mention Joyce, and there may be friends of Yeats present. Wherever two or three Irish are gathered together, I gather, there is a Donnybrook Fair.9 I shall take an hot water bottle, and two wool pullovers and wool shirts and a scarf. AndMorrell, Lady Ottolineissues TSE with Irish introductions;f8 Ottoline has pressed upon me several introductions which I probably shan’t have the time to present. I shall be back by the 26th; andJanes, W. L.a saying of;a6 then, if all goes well, as Janes says, IOld Possum’s Book of Practical Cats;b2 shall start to produce my Pollicle Dogs and Jellicle Cats. TomFaber, Thomas Erle ('Tom', TSE's godson);a7 Faber, by the way, is recovering splendidly; andFaber, Richard ('Dick');a1 his brother Dick, who simultaneously cut off the end of his finger, is apparently recovering too. I shall also take plenty of cascara10 (as I understand that the Irish cuisine is barbarous) and cold cure. The main point is, that between the 22nd and the 26th I may not be able to write to you. MyCoffey, Dr Denis J.;a1 address during that period is c/o Dr. Denis J. Coffey, 41 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin – he is the President of the National University.11 MyKiernan, Delia;a2 chief fright is of meeting my old friend Mrs. Kiernan, the miniature gorilla.12 Irish women are terrible.
I am thinking of sending you a wire to learn whether you have had any other letters from me since that of Dec. 22nd. YouRice, Elmerproduces Federal Theatre Murder;a2 willMurder in the Cathedralunsolicited 1936 New York production;e2to be directed by Rice;a2 have heard from me about the Elmer Rice affair. Here I have been writing all about myself – but only because you want to know – and you know I want you to write all about YOURself: but events don’t seem very important; and I want you to write also, as you want me to write to you, about OURself. Whenever I go to early Mass, and kneel in the pew in that rather dismal church, I think of the last time – and the first time it was there, – when we knelt together in the early morning; and I am always always conscious of your absence, and I feel that you ought to be there with me. My love, my love, my perfect Love.
1.Collected Poems 1909–1935 (Harcourt, Brace & Co., 21 May 1936).
2.It seems possible that TSE read of Sesostris first in Flaubert’s Temptation of St Antony. See Lafcadio Hearn’s translation (New York, 1910), 55. Two pages earlier: ‘What are you thinking of now that you say nothing more? … ‘I am thinking of – Oh, nothing.’ Earlier still (p. 45): ‘O my daughter!’
3.Heater/heating.
4.Ross E. Pierce.
5.RolandSavage, Roland Buke, SJ Burke Savage, SJ (1912–98) – a student at the time: a scholastic pursuing his university studies – invited TSE to participate in the Inaugural Meeting of the English Literary Society of University College, Dublin, to take place on 22 Jan. 1936 (Burke Savage was the Auditor), for a fee of £25 plus expenses. TSE would be expected in the first instance to speak to the Auditor’s Paper, ‘Literature at the Irish Crossroads’ – of which the ‘general trend’ would be ‘an analysis of the “Celtic Renaissance” movement, and some thoughts on the future development of an “English Literature” in Ireland’, said Savage – and they would arrange too for TSE to give, on the following day, a lecture on any literary subject of his own choosing. Burke Savage sent a covering note on 7 Jan. 1936, along with a copy of his address for TSE’s information. The Inaugural Meeting of the English Literary Society, University College, Dublin, 23 Jan. 1936, was to be chaired by Dr Coffey, President. The ‘Auditor’s Address’ was entitled ‘Literature at the Irish Crossroads’: see CProse 5, 293–9. TSE would propose the ‘Resolution’, ‘That the Auditor deserves the best thanks of the Society for his Address’; he was to be seconded by Professor Daniel Corkery.
6.ProfessorHogan, Professor J. J. J. J. Hogan, MA, B.Litt (Oxon).
7.VincentGrogan, Vincent B. B. Grogan, Hon. Sec., English Literary Society, University College Dublin.
8.The saying ‘wigs on the green’, signifying a fracas or fight, may originate from eighteenth-century Ireland.
9.Donnybrook Fair is a by-word for a chaotic, drunken gathering.
10.cascara: laxative.
11.DrCoffey, Dr Denis J. Denis J. Coffey (1865–1945), first President of University College Dublin, 1908–40. Formerly Professor of Physiology, and Dean of the Catholic University Medical School.
12.Delia Kiernan.
6.DonaldBrace, Donald Brace (1881–1955), publisher; co-founder of Harcourt, Brace: see Biographical Register.
11.DrCoffey, Dr Denis J. Denis J. Coffey (1865–1945), first President of University College Dublin, 1908–40. Formerly Professor of Physiology, and Dean of the Catholic University Medical School.
4.AshleyDukes, Ashley Dukes (1885–1959), theatre manager, playwright, critic, translator, adapter, author; from 1933, owner of the Mercury Theatre, London: see Biographical Register.
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.
7.VincentGrogan, Vincent B. B. Grogan, Hon. Sec., English Literary Society, University College Dublin.
4.W. L. JanesJanes, W. L. (1854–1939), ex-policeman who worked as handyman for the Eliots. Having been superannuated from the police force early in the century, he worked for a period (until about 1921) as a plain-clothes detective in the General Post Office. TSE reminisced to Mary Trevelyan on 2 Apr. 1951: ‘If I ever write my reminiscences, which I shan’t, Janes would have a great part in them’ (‘The Pope of Russell Square’). TSE to Adam Roberts (b. 1940; godson of TSE), 12 Dec. 1955: ‘I … knew a retired police officer, who at one period had to snoop in plain clothes in the General Post Office in Newgate Street – he caught several culprits, he said’ (Adam Roberts). HisJanes, Ada wife was Ada Janes (d. 1935).
1.JamesJoyce, James Joyce (1882–1941), Irish novelist, playwright, poet; author of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922), Finnegans Wake (1939).
4.FrankMorley, Frank Vigor Vigor Morley (1899–1980), American publisher and author; a founding editor of F&F, 1929–39: see Biographical Register.
4.LadyMorrell, Lady Ottoline Ottoline Morrell (1873–1938), hostess and patron: see Biographical Register.
3.BrigidO'Donovan, Brigid O’Donovan, TSE’s secretary from Jan. 1935 to Dec. 1936: see Biographical Register.
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).
5.RolandSavage, Roland Buke, SJ Burke Savage, SJ (1912–98) – a student at the time: a scholastic pursuing his university studies – invited TSE to participate in the Inaugural Meeting of the English Literary Society of University College, Dublin, to take place on 22 Jan. 1936 (Burke Savage was the Auditor), for a fee of £25 plus expenses. TSE would be expected in the first instance to speak to the Auditor’s Paper, ‘Literature at the Irish Crossroads’ – of which the ‘general trend’ would be ‘an analysis of the “Celtic Renaissance” movement, and some thoughts on the future development of an “English Literature” in Ireland’, said Savage – and they would arrange too for TSE to give, on the following day, a lecture on any literary subject of his own choosing. Burke Savage sent a covering note on 7 Jan. 1936, along with a copy of his address for TSE’s information. The Inaugural Meeting of the English Literary Society, University College, Dublin, 23 Jan. 1936, was to be chaired by Dr Coffey, President. The ‘Auditor’s Address’ was entitled ‘Literature at the Irish Crossroads’: see CProse 5, 293–9. TSE would propose the ‘Resolution’, ‘That the Auditor deserves the best thanks of the Society for his Address’; he was to be seconded by Professor Daniel Corkery.
2.Revd Francis UnderhillUnderhill, Revd Francis, Bishop of Bath and Wells, DD (1878–1943), TSE’s spiritual counsellor: see Biographical Register.
4.W. B. YeatsYeats, William Butler ('W. B.') (1865–1939), Irish poet and playwright: see Biographical Register.