[No surviving envelope]
I thank you for your sweet letter of the 16th, of all of which I shall be mindful. HereGwynne, M. Brooke;a9 is the nice letter from Miss Gwynne – it meant more to me that she should write to you in this way (and also appreciate the fact that I should have been very unlikely to accept her invitation without your intervention) than anything she could say to me direct. IHale, Emilymoves to 154 Riverway with Perkinses;i2 wonder whether you are at Riverway let [sc. yet] – I shall (because of a previous misdirection) continue to write to Brimmer Street, as I am sure it will reach you, and I know that in case of any important change of address you would wire me. Besides, your stay at Riverway is to be so brief that you may not notify me until you go to Highland Street, where I suppose you will be for about two months, and then Cataumet – unless something turns up unexpectedly meanwhile. IMurder in the Cathedral1936 America pirate production;e7 wasDukes, Ashleypolicing pirate productions of Murder;b9 interested to know that you had seen the hall at Worcester, and met the Macdonald who seems to have made a good thing of the play. He did not ask permission, by the way; but Dukes spotted the performance and got two guineas out of them afterwards! I don’t suppose it will be possible to catch all the pirates – the English-speaking world is very big: but I am sure Dukes will do his best. He has an agent in Sydney New S. Wales, on the lookout for Australian infringements. NowSpeaight, Robertrecords Becket's sermon;c2 Bobby Speaight is going to do a record of the Sermon (how tired I am getting of that sermon!) for His Master’s Voice, and I have to arrange a contract with them.1 Really, the nightmare of a screen version seems possible!
AEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother)writes again about religion;c8 long letter from Henry, from which I gather that the Fourth Tempter was not very appropriate. I have had to write to Henry in reply, because he thinks that I suffer from ‘notions of persecution’ (a propos, apparently, of various references to ‘Christian persecution[’]).2 IEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother)insensitive to European affairs;c9 wonderAmericaunderrates Europe's influence on England;b5 ifEnglandmuch more intimate with Europe than America;b3 people in America (Henry has not visited Europe since his honeymoon, and even then the circumstances, and of course his great deafness, did not favour his getting very much knowledge and understanding) always realise that England is much nearer to the continent than New York is, and that events in Germany, for instance, are very real when such a short distance away. But I am afraid that I do not understand Henry very well.
Yes, do cable if any definite offer of employment is accepted. YouHale, Emilyconsiders volunteering for charity;i3 are quite right, I think, if nothing worth taking turns up for next winter, to seek voluntary work in relief of the poor or ill: so long, my dearest, as you do not attempt anything under too bad conditions, or that would affect a constitution which I do not consider too robust – especially as that constitution is united to such a conscientious and self-sacrificing spirit as yours, my dear.
Probablytravels, trips and plansTSE's spring/summer 1936 trip to Paris;c2;a4 go to Paris the last week in May; andKrausses, the;a3 I will write to the Krauss’s, unless they are coming to London before then. Paris will be a refreshing change – unless the political world is too gloomy – ratherHuxleys, thetempt TSE to visit Provence;b1 than a rest: I think of taking the Huxleys at their word and asking myself out to the Mediterranean coast in July and August for a week.3 I want to be looking well before I come to America!
IWeidlé, Wladimir;a3 had a pleasant evening with Mr. Wladimir Weidlé, the Russian philosopher, whom I liked extremely; lunchUnwin, J. D.;a1 yesterday with an anthropologist in whose work I am interested – one J. D. Unwin4 who lives at the Cambridge Mission in Camberwell – IO'Donovan, Brigid;b2 forgot about it until Miss O.’D. rang me up at the club in consternation – so I was three quarters of an hour late – which made me late through the rest of the day. ThenMcKnight Kauffers, thetheir marital problems;a6 hadMcKnight Kauffer, Marion (née Dorn)complains of husband;a1 to look in on Marion (McKnight Kauffer)5 at her shop near Bond Street, where she sells the carpets and stuffs that she designs, and hear about her domestic difficulties – should she go back to Ted (McKnight Kauffer) when he returns from France: heMcKnight Kauffer, Edwardas husband;a3 has been difficult to live with and neurasthenic for a long time. I am always very cautious about offering advice to people in domestic difficulties – and what they chiefly want is someone to listen sympathetically – as a rule, I think, if they can’t settle them themselves no one else can do it for them: not, as a matter of fact, that she exactly asked for advice either.
Dove, my dear, I take you in my arms and kiss you as I end a letter, as I want you to kiss me when you end one of yours: and your ring (which I haven’t yet brought myself to part with long enough to get it inscribed – it has not left my finger since you put it on me) night and morning.
1.Speaight was to record the Sermon from Murder in the Cathedral for ‘His Master’s Voice’ (HMV); TSE received a royalty of 5% on 85% of gross sales.
2.See TSE’s letter of 28 Apr. 1936 (Letters 8, 183–5), and notes, quoting Henry Eliot’s letter to TSE of 16 Apr.
3.The Huxleys were living at Sanary-sur-Mer in Provence.
4.J. D. UnwinUnwin, J. D. (1895–1936), ethnologist and social anthropologist; author of Sex and Culture (1934) and Hopousia: or, The Sexual and Economic Foundations of a New Society (1940) – which was to be reviewed by TSE in Purpose 7 (July/Dec. 1940), 154–8: CProse 6, 100–4.
5.MarionMcKnight Kauffer, Marion (née Dorn) Dorn (1896–1964), acclaimed textile designer – she worked on the interiors of the Savoy Hotel and Claridges in London, and on the interior of the liner Queen Mary – lived in London with the artist and illustrator E. McKnight Kauffer, 1920–40: they were to marry in New York in 1950.
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.
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.EdwardMcKnight Kauffer, Edward McKnight Kauffer (1890–1954), American artist and illustrator: see Biographical Register. His partner was Marion Dorn (1896–1964), textile designer.
5.MarionMcKnight Kauffer, Marion (née Dorn) Dorn (1896–1964), acclaimed textile designer – she worked on the interiors of the Savoy Hotel and Claridges in London, and on the interior of the liner Queen Mary – lived in London with the artist and illustrator E. McKnight Kauffer, 1920–40: they were to marry in New York in 1950.
3.BrigidO'Donovan, Brigid O’Donovan, TSE’s secretary from Jan. 1935 to Dec. 1936: 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.
4.J. D. UnwinUnwin, J. D. (1895–1936), ethnologist and social anthropologist; author of Sex and Culture (1934) and Hopousia: or, The Sexual and Economic Foundations of a New Society (1940) – which was to be reviewed by TSE in Purpose 7 (July/Dec. 1940), 154–8: CProse 6, 100–4.
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).