[No surviving envelope]
It was dear of you to answer my cable, and if I had thought that you were likely to do so, I should have made it reply paid: because I do not like you to be spending your money on such luxuries, however much pleasure and excitement you may know they give me. My next cable shall be reply paid! ButHale, Emilypossible career-move into politics;h8 I am distressed to learn that the political job is off. It is terribly hard for you, having these proposals turn up then whisk away like scary fish, and I do appreciate and admire all the courage you are drawing upon at the present time. But I cannot help believing that whatever happens will somehow turn out to be for the best in the end, however hard it is to bear at the time. I think I must have been very stupid and tired last night; I am sure I wrote a heavy uninspired sort of letter; andPrinceton University;a8 Itravels, trips and plansTSE's 1936 American trip;c4and possible Princeton offer;a6 did not even mention what you reported from Princeton. After my dismal work (under such difficulties that no one knew of ) two years ago, I should be surprised if anyone wanted me in America for more than one lecture anywhere; and the notion of being asked to Princeton for a half a year seems wholly outside the picture. It would need a good deal of readjustment. Financially, I should have at least to get enough to make up for my salary here during the same period, plus travelling expenses, etc., keeping my rooms here and so on; and the principal other question would be, how much I should be likely to see of you and under what conditions – because I can imagine conditions of meeting that would be more trying than not meeting at all! Or rather, whether I should by making such an engagement see any more of you, under the right conditions, than I should by just dropping over in the late summer and keeping myself free and private, though perhaps giving an odd lecture or two to help pay my voyage expense. So that if such an offer should come, I want you to be ready to advise me about accepting, as an alternative to the private visit.
I am not quite so tired tonight as last, but have had a less bustling day. NextGwynne, M. Brooke;a3 week (Lent) and the week after will quickly fill up with engagements – I must make an appointment with Miss Brook-Gwynne, whom I had to put off during my illness, andSeaverns, Helen;a3 must also arrange to see Mrs. Seaverns; andMadge, Charles;a1 therePorteus, Hugh Gordon;a3 areHeppenstall, Rayner;a1 some of my young people to whom I must give meals – Charles Madge and his wife,1 and the Porteus’s and Rayner Heppenstall;2 andRead, Herbert;b6 I must see the Reads, I suppose, andHutchinsons, the;a9 I have to dine with the Hutchinsons, whom I have not seen for a long time. And'Byron';a2 I haveDobrée, Bonamyand 'Byron';b4 toOld Possum’s Book of Practical Catsdelayed by Milton and Byron essays;b3 grind out my papers on Milton and Byron3 for the sake of Read and Dobrée respectively, before I can get on to my nonsense book.4 OhFamily Reunion, The;a2 and the other consideration in deciding whether to accept a lecture engagement in America, supposing that my opportunities of having your company were about equal, between that and the private visit, is that anything like that would set me back a long way with the new play that I am anxious to get to work on. I can’t begin work till May at best: and summer is always liable to be interrupted by American relatives. Ohtravels, trips and plansEH's 1934–5 year in Europe;b4TSE reflects on;f5 dear, I wish you were in Gloucestershire, and that I was moving out again to Russell Square to lend you my rooms for a visit here. Those visits you paid were so precious to me; and9 Grenville Place, Londonsanctified by EH's presence;b4 you don’t know how proud and happy I was to have you using my rooms and sanctifying them for me. Especially precious was the evening when you had the dreadful headache, and I stroked it for you, and felt so shaken with tenderness. That feeling of tenderness seems to me perhaps the most wonderful thing in love, when one is completely purified of any feeling of vanity. LoveHale, EmilyTSE's love for;x2as against love's travesties;e1 is always close, perhaps, to some horrible travesty of itself – it is the travesty, and not the real thing, when there is any love of power involved, any desire to dominate, to make use of another person (and it is no better when two people are making use of each other, satisfying themselves in dishonouring each other: that is awful). It is only through that overwhelming desire to GIVE, that one ever really RECEIVES. And one must think of the other person as something holy, and belonging to God, and one’s communication with them as the gift of God.
Now I will lie still, and draw you close to me.
I did enjoy your friend’s letter (‘Asie’?).
1.CharlesMadge, Charles Madge (1912–96), poet and sociologist: see Biographical Register.
2.RaynerHeppenstall, Rayner Heppenstall (1911–81), novelist, poet, radio producer; author of Middleton Murry: A Study in Excellent Normality (1934); Apology for Dancing (1936); The Blaze of Noon (novel, 1939); Four Absentees: Dylan Thomas, George Orwell, Eric Gill, J. Middleton Murry (1960).
3.‘Byron (1788–1824) by T. S. Eliot’, in From Anne to Victoria: Essays by Various Hands, ed. Bonamy Dobrée (1937): CProse 5, 430–48.
4.See John Hayward, ‘London Letter’, New York Sun, 25 Jan. 1936, 71: ‘This, I can tell you, will be a rare treat, not least on account of the illustrations that Eliot proposes to make for it.’
3.Bonamy DobréeDobrée, Bonamy (1891–1974), scholar and editor: see Biographical Register.
4.M. BrookeGwynne, M. Brooke Gwynne, University of London Institute of Education – ‘a Training College for Graduate students’ – invited TSE on 19 Jan. to participate in their Weds.-morning seminar: ‘Emily Hale suggested that you might possibly consent to come to the Institute to talk to our students; otherwise I should have not felt justified in asking you … The teaching of poetry is the subject most hotly discussed & the subject we should like you to choose if possible.’
2.RaynerHeppenstall, Rayner Heppenstall (1911–81), novelist, poet, radio producer; author of Middleton Murry: A Study in Excellent Normality (1934); Apology for Dancing (1936); The Blaze of Noon (novel, 1939); Four Absentees: Dylan Thomas, George Orwell, Eric Gill, J. Middleton Murry (1960).
1.CharlesMadge, Charles Madge (1912–96), poet and sociologist: see Biographical Register.
6.HughPorteus, Hugh Gordon Gordon Porteus (1906–93), literary and art critic; author: see Biographical Register. HisBartek, Zenda partner was Zenka Bartek, who left him in 1944.
3.Herbert ReadRead, Herbert (1893–1968), English poet and literary critic: see Biographical Register.
3.HelenSeaverns, Helen Seaverns, widow of the American-born businessman and Liberal MP, Joel Herbert Seaverns: see Biographical Register.