[1418 East 63d St., Seattle]
To continue. First of all, about the photograph. Do you suppose, for instance, that I was really pleased to send you those photographs of myself ? Theyappearance (TSE's)'pudding-faced';a1 were good enough for ordinary purposes, but when it came to their representing me to you, don’t you suppose that I cursed those pudding-faced soft smug effigies which appeared instead of the heroic countenance that I should like to show? By one and the same token, any photograph of you will at the same time appear beautiful to me and also absurdly a caricature – so it will be unkind if you do not send me at least one of the poses. And have you no less recent portraits? or, what I should particularly like, several snapshots? I should like you to have a small kodak and keep snapping yourself for my benefit.
IWare, Mary Lee;a5 did not mean in the least that I had taken an unfavourable impression of Miss Ware – onlyPerkinses, thecompared to Mary Ware;a3 that I thought that the Perkins’s were much closer and more sympathetic to you.
I dare say that I am more fortunate than you, in having apparently more friends and acquaintances of approximately my own generation as well as older and younger. It is true that they are divisible practically into professional friends and social friends – on the one hand the limited community of literary interests – on the other, a rather impersonal social form – both very pleasant so far as they go. Neither relation is quite the same as ‘personal’ friendships; and I do not know anyone with whom there is no necessity of keeping up any ‘appearance’ at all. Sometimes I feel more nearly relaxed and rested in the company of those who have not very keen literary interests; for instance, HarryCrofton, Harry C.TSE's ease with;a1 CroftonLloyds BankTSE's first boss at;a1, who was the first man under whom I worked in the City, at Lloyds Bank, and who is merely a very pleasant Etonian who should have been a diplomat but for ill health and drifted into banking instead.1 FaberFaber, Geoffreyas friend;a4 is really about as near a friend, and as confidential a one, as anybody – that is not saying much – he is only a year younger than I – but of course the real centre of his existence is a very happy domestic life. I am extremely lucky in having such congenial associates in this business – even their wifes [sc. wives] are agreeable.
It is hard, often, to face the fact that under different conditions – which after all are only the conditions that ordinary people may expect to enjoy – one might be so much nicer a person, with so much richer and more beneficent a life, and with so much more to give to others.
PerhapsHale, Emilyrelationship with TSE;w9and TSE's habitual reserve;a4 I have always been more acutely conscious of ‘restriction’ throughout. It is partly that I feel, and have felt all these years, with everyone I have known, to a greater or less degree, a sense of having to make an effort – of never being quite natural, and of gradually learning to cultivate an artificial naturalness and spontaneity; so that everyone is after a time fatiguing. So I have had the vision of being in the company of one person with whom there would be none of that artificiality – with whom one could be silent, or talk of anything from the most serious to the most trifling – and be always refreshed and never tired. And now I have some imagination of what that would be like. I have never approached that anything like so nearly in conversation with anyone as I have in correspondence with you and my life is so much richer and more real than I could ever have dreamt of a year ago, that I often have a feeling of repose that I never knew before. It isn’t always like that! as you now know quite well. But at the same time it is quite impossible that I should come to prefer this mode of communication or forget its imperfections. I often think that if I could see you just for five minutes, it would be a great help in writing: to assure myself that I could, and know that I had, spoken to you for a few minutes just as I write – and taken your hand and knelt at your feet.
Well! there is not much news in this letter, is there – but I imagine that I shall not hear from you again for some days; because you will have been travelling west – so I am all the more grateful for such a lovely letter to keep me in the interval: and there will be time for a diary on Monday. I wonder if you will come across one ProfessorHughes, Glenn;a1 GlennHughes, Babette;a1 Hughes2 (and his wife Babette!)3 of the University of Seattle.
1.HarryCrofton, Harry C. C. Crofton (d. 1938), was the senior of the four managers of the Colonial and Foreign Department. HisCrofton, Harry C.TSE remembered by his son;a2n son John told the Archivist of Lloyds Bank, 1 Aug. 1980: ‘I have memories of my father inviting T. S. for several week-ends to our home. My mother … used to speak of him and of how much they enjoyed his visits. (If I may add that in those days it was a little unusual for the Chief Foreign Manager to invite “a clerk” for week-ends!!!) I do know that the object of the visits from my father’s side, was to persuade T. S. to give up the Bank and devote himself to his obvious real calling.’
2.GlennHughes, Glenn Hughes (1894–1964), author, playwright, theatre director; author of Imagism and the Imagists: A Study in Modern Poetry (Stanford, 1931).
3.BabetteHughes, Babette Hughes (1905–82), successful author of short plays and mystery stories.
1.HarryCrofton, Harry C. C. Crofton (d. 1938), was the senior of the four managers of the Colonial and Foreign Department. HisCrofton, Harry C.TSE remembered by his son;a2n son John told the Archivist of Lloyds Bank, 1 Aug. 1980: ‘I have memories of my father inviting T. S. for several week-ends to our home. My mother … used to speak of him and of how much they enjoyed his visits. (If I may add that in those days it was a little unusual for the Chief Foreign Manager to invite “a clerk” for week-ends!!!) I do know that the object of the visits from my father’s side, was to persuade T. S. to give up the Bank and devote himself to his obvious real calling.’
11.GeoffreyFaber, Geoffrey Faber (1889–1961), publisher and poet: see Biographical Register.
3.BabetteHughes, Babette Hughes (1905–82), successful author of short plays and mystery stories.
2.GlennHughes, Glenn Hughes (1894–1964), author, playwright, theatre director; author of Imagism and the Imagists: A Study in Modern Poetry (Stanford, 1931).
3.MaryWare, Mary Lee Lee Ware (1858–1937), independently wealthy Bostonian, friend and landlady of EH at 41 Brimmer Street: see Biographical Register.