[No surviving envelope]

T. S.Eliot
EmilyHale
TS
The Criterion
24 April 1936
My very dear,

Even if I didn’t have anything to say since my last letter, I should always have great pleasure in writing just in order to put the heading and the signature to a letter to you. (I am glad you kept the return-form of my cable, to use in case of sudden change of address or any minor reason for cabling). I have not much to tell you, since yesterday – IHuxleys, the;a9 had a very pleasant dinner with the Huxleys before their return to their house in the South of France. IHuxley, Maria (née Nys)TSE on;a1 do not care very much for Maria, who always seemed to me a rather stupid, socially ambitious Belgian peasant (Ottoline says she is untruthful, but I don’t know about that), butHuxley, Aldousalways charms TSE;b4 Aldous is so charming that it doesn’t matter (though I enjoy more seeing him by himself). To-day'Byron';a4 has been quiet – in the morning I worked at my essay on Byron, andZander, Léon;a1 in the afternoon at the office I had no one to see except a White Russian theologian from Paris named Professor Zander, who wants me to get published a translation of a work by Father Sergius Bulgakoff.1 And tonight I am at home – tomorrow St. Mark’s Day, and the whole day to myself – andWeidlé, Wladimir;a2 also Sunday except that I have to have cold supper at the Society of Retreat Conductors in Queens Gate to meet Professor Wladimir Weidle:2 quite a Russian week.

To-day the first really springlike day – sunny and balmy and for a part of the day I felt too warm in my winter clothes, and possessed by a spring restlessness. I wish that I could be with my Love walking out in the hills, or sitting in a garden belonging to ourselves and no one else, listening to the church bells; and otherwise I should like all days to be dull and all night cloudy until these things are possible. Dear my Love, good night.

My Emilie
from her Tom

1.LéonZander, Léon Zander, Institut de Théologie Orthodoxe, Paris, was trying to interest F&F in The Lamb of God by Sergius Bulgakov (1871–1944), Russian Orthodox Christian theologian and philosopher.

2.See letter of 28 Apr. 1936, below.

Huxley, Aldous, critiques 'Thoughts After Lambeth', drops in on the Eliots, the man versus the writer, TSE pronounces on, dismissed as novelist, his irreligion, signatory to Credit Reform letter, invigorating company, concurs with TSE on California, suffering from insomnia, and the Christian attitude to war, always charms TSE, pacifist efforts, as playwright, Brave New World, Eyeless in Gaza, The World of Light, TSE enjoys, compared to Hay Fever, EH reads and comments on, TSE reflects on, Those Barren Leaves,
see also Huxleys, the

10.AldousHuxley, Aldous Huxley (1894–1963), novelist, poet, essayist: see Biographical Register.

Huxley, Maria (née Nys), TSE on, chats with TSE at OM's,
see also Huxleys, the

9.MariaHuxley, Maria (née Nys) Huxley, née Nys (1898–1955), bisexual wife of Aldous Huxley, was born in Belgium.

Huxleys, the, TSE's wish that EH meet, and Sweeney Agonistes, host tea at Albany flat, host sherry party without Aldous, tempt TSE to visit Provence,
Weidlé, Wladimir, considered for Criterion commentary,

11.Wladimir WeidléWeidlé, Wladimir (1895–1979), Russian art critic and man of letters; emigrated to France in 1924; author of Les Abeilles d’Aristée: Essai sur le destin actuel des lettres et des arts (1936).

Zander, Léon,

1.LéonZander, Léon Zander, Institut de Théologie Orthodoxe, Paris, was trying to interest F&F in The Lamb of God by Sergius Bulgakov (1871–1944), Russian Orthodox Christian theologian and philosopher.