[No surviving envelope]
Your letter of the 12th arrived this morning, by the Normandie, which is quick, I think, so I hope that this letter and yesterday’s will arrive quickly to you by the same boat. Correspondence is beginning to move more rapidly, I think, and next week there will be the Queen Mary, I suppose trying to make a new record.1 You mention my letters of April 30 and May 5 (4th?) but not my letter of April 28th, but I trust it reached you. Iflowers and florasweet peas;c9delivered to EH;a5 am glad that the sweet peas were salmon pink – they did come, as you conjecture, from me. Onflowers and florasweet peas;c9TSE buys himself at Gloucester Road;a6 my way home this evening I bought some for myself, from the barrow this side of Gloucester Road Station which you used to patronise, and they are in a vase on my chest of drawers, surrounded by photographs, as you will remember.
SpringAmericaNew England;f9springless;a9 has come very suddenly – or rather summer – for I have never known in London so sudden a transition from winter to summer – reminding one of New England. Last week one shivered, to-day one could not be cool enough. I have had to buy some thin socks, and I shall have to buy some new underclothes too.
ISmith Collegeappoints EH assistant professor;a6 amHale, Emilyas teacher;w1appointed to position at Smith;c2 very much relieved to hear that the Smith engagement is settled – at first I refused to feel sure of it. I am sure that you were right to accept, even though the work is not quite what your heart would be in. INoyes, Penelope BarkerEH's Cataumet summer holiday with;d3 also read with pleasure Penelope’s letter. How do you feel about going as a guest for a month? If the strain of being with them is so great as you suggest, is it desirable for you to go at all, or for that length of time, even just as a guest with Penelope there? It’s a question of what the alternative is, without being wrecked by the spring. It will be more difficult for you, no doubt, to be limited to the side of your work which you care less for, but I am sure that [you] will be just as good at that as anyone can be! even though you have, naturally, more confidence in yourself as a dramatic producer.
ISpeaight, Robertwhich TSE is against;c3 am not keen in the least to have a record made of the Sermon, but I think Bobby Speaight would like to do it, and it would be an advertisement for him, so I don’t want to stand in his way.
TomorrowCriterion, Theparticularly heavy gathering;b1 a ‘Criterion Evening’, at which Morley and I entertain (to sherry, hock or beer, and biscuits) about twenty or thirty contributors to the Criterion, and other persons whom it is thought desirable to have present. We have not done this for a long time – about a year: but it is, besides rather expensive, very tiring, and we shall be glad to get it over with.
And have you anything in the way of spring and summer clothes?
Yes, I think you should like Smith, after you have got to know some congenial people on the faculty: it is a large college, isn’t it, so that you may take a little time.
It seems to me that your aunt’s lectures cause you as much anxiety and trouble beforehand as they do to her – especially if it always upsets her sleep. But I am glad to know that they have been successful, if not very remunerative.
MustAll Souls Club, Theeven vaguer at third;a4 stop to get this to the post. No particular news since I wrote yesterday, except a dinner of my dining club last night – again discussed a question so vague that no conclusion could be come to; the chief point of it however for me is to get in contact with selected non-conformists and get an opportunity to see how their minds work.
I should like to send some flowers once a week – but I will keep my money for other things!
1.The maiden voyage of RMS Queen Mary (Cunard–White Star Line) took place on 27 May; the ship was to win the Blue Riband (marking the fastest transatlantic crossing to date) in Aug. 1936.
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.
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.