[1418 East 63d St., Seattle]

T. S.Eliot
EmilyHale
TS
Faber & Faber Ltd
19 June 1931
Dearest Lady,

IPrinceton University;a1 was gloriously happy to get a letter from you from Princeton, because I had not expected to hear again until you reached Seattle – incidentally I shall be uneasy until I hear from you from Seattle, and know that you have received my letters, one every Tuesday and Friday: one is always apprehensive on first writing to a new address, perhaps I wrote 1814 or West or 36th etc. (HereClemen, Wolfgang H.;a1 I was interrupted for twenty minutes by a charming young German named Clemen1 who has been at Cambridge; these modern intellectual young Germans don’t look like Germans at all – some look English, some French or Italian, but the oldfashioned shavenheaded scarfaced piglike type I never see). Anyway, I think it was very sweet and thoughtful of you to write; because I know how tired one gets travelling about and visiting, and how little time one has; and I fancy that with the end of the season and the break and change to other scenes you must at first be feeling very very tired – which perhaps accounts for your intimation that you only expect to live another twenty years! really, Madam, I should be very annoyed with you if you did not live longer than that, you must really have more consideration for me.

IPrinceton Universityaccording to TSE's fantasy;a2 imagine Princeton as a very pleasant place. IUniversity of CambridgeTSE dreams of professorship at;a3 have often thought that I might like to retire to an academic life myself; butQuiller-Couch, Sir Arthur;a1 the only real temptation would be if I were offered Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch’s professorship at Cambridge, because it is light work and good pay.2 Some years ago it was thought that he would have to retire on account of health, and then, Whibley would have put me forward – he told me that ‘Q’ himself would support my candidature, and the professorship is a Crown appointment, and the Prime Minister at that time was Baldwin, who was a friend of both Whibley and ‘Q’, so I might have got it. ButEnglandLondon;h1affords solitude and anonymity;a3 apart from great inducements like that, I know that I am better off in London than in a small society with pretty rigid social obligations and living in public: London is so big that one can ‘keep oneself to oneself’ as they say, and for me there are advantages in that.

IThorp, Willard;a1 doubt whether it would be possible for Thorp to get a broadcasting engagement unless he was here for more than one year, because the programmes for that part of broadcasting, the ‘educational’, tend more and more to be made up long in advance. Still, I know the right people, and will find out; there might be a few vacant periods. ItThorps, the;a2 will be a delight to me to have any friends of yours here in London, and I shall see all of them that I can – that will not appear, I am afraid, very much, to anyone who does not know my circumstances. So I look forward to their coming. I find it easy, on the whole, to establish contact quickly with men, where any contact is possible; but, for every reason, difficult with women.

Now, please, you must get used to feeling ‘ill-informed’ and put up with it – you don’t know how ill-informed I am, and now I no longer worry about that: life isn’t long enough to become well informed in. And as I don’t know any more intelligent woman than Yourself: don’t please be so ‘Ambitious’. When I have settled on a book I want to read I will procure two copies and send you one.

NowTrend, John Brande ('J. B.');a1 I must go to lunch with J. B. Trend3 and a Spanish friend of his. I am longing for a letter from Seattle AND a photograph. You are very unkind about that.

Your humble admirer
Tom

1.WolfgangClemen, Wolfgang H. H. Clemen (1909–90), literary scholar; renowned for Shakespeare’s Imagery (1951) – a work that began life as his doctoral dissertation completed in 1936. He taught at Cologne and Kiel, and was to be Professor of English at the University of Munich, 1946–74.

2.SirQuiller-Couch, Sir Arthur Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863–1944) – ‘Q’ – critic, poet, novelist, editor and anthologist; King Edward VII Professor of English Literature, Cambridge, Fellow of Jesus College. His publications include the Oxford Book of English Verse 1250– 1900 (1900) and On the Art of Writing (lectures, 1916). See further A. L. Rowse, Quiller Couch: A Portrait of ‘Q’ (1988).

3.J. B. TrendTrend, John Brande ('J. B.') (1887–1958), journalist, musicologist – he wrote articles on music for the Criterion – was to become Professor of Spanish at Cambridge, 1933–52. See Margaret Joan Anstee, JB – An Unlikely Spanish Don: The Life & Times of John Brande Trend (Sussex Academic Press, 2013).

Clemen, Wolfgang H.,

1.WolfgangClemen, Wolfgang H. H. Clemen (1909–90), literary scholar; renowned for Shakespeare’s Imagery (1951) – a work that began life as his doctoral dissertation completed in 1936. He taught at Cologne and Kiel, and was to be Professor of English at the University of Munich, 1946–74.

England, TSE as transatlantic cultural conduit for, discomforts of its larger houses, and Henry James, at times unreal, TSE's patriotic homesickness for, which is not a repudiation of America, TSE's want of relations in, encourages superiority in Americans familiar with, reposeful, natural ally of France, compared to Wales, much more intimate with Europe than America, TSE on his 'exile' in, undone by 'Dividend morality', in wartime, war binds TSE to, post-war, post-war privations, the English, initially strange to TSE, contortions of upward mobility, comparatively rooted as a people, TSE more comfortable distinguishing, the two kinds of duke, TSE's vision of wealthy provincials, its Tories, more blunt than Americans, as congregants, considered racially superior, a relief from the Scottish, don't talk in poetry, compared to the Irish, English countryside, around Hindhead, distinguished, the West Country, compared to New England's, fen country, in primrose season, the English weather, cursed by Joyce, suits mistiness, preferred to America's, distinguished for America's by repose, relaxes TSE, not rainy enough, English traditions, Derby Day, Order of Merit, shooting, Varsity Cricket Match, TSE's dislike of talking cricket, rugby match enthralls, the death of George V, knighthood, the English language, Adlestrop, Gloucestershire, visited by EH and TSE, Amberley, West Sussex, ruined castle at, Arundel, West Sussex, TSE's guide to, Bath, Somerset, TSE 'ravished' by, EH visits, Bemerton, Wiltshire, visited on Herbert pilgrimage, Blockley, Gloucestershire, tea at the Crown, Bosham, West Sussex, EH introduced to, Bridport, Dorset, Tandys settled near, Burford, Oxfordshire, EH staying in, too hallowed to revisit, Burnt Norton, Gloucestershire, TSE remembers visiting, and the Cotswolds, its imagined fate, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, less oppressive than Oxford, TSE's vision of life in, possible refuge during Blitz, Charlbury, Oxfordshire, visited by EH and TSE, Chester, Cheshire, TSE's plans in, TSE on, Chichester, West Sussex, the Perkinses encouraged to visit, EH celebrates birthday in, TSE's guide to, 'The Church and the Artist', TSE gives EH ring in, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, Perkinses take house at, shockingly remote, TSE's first weekend at, likened to Florence, TSE jealous of memories associated with, its Arts & Crafts associations, its attractions to Dr Perkins, forever associated with TSE and EH, sound of the Angelus, without EH, treasured in TSE's memory, excursions from, EH on 'our' garden at, Stamford House passes into new hands, EH's fleeting return to, Cornwall, TSE's visit to, compared to North Devon, Cotswolds, sacred in TSE's memory, Derbyshire, as seen from Swanwick, Devon ('Devonshire'), likened to American South, the Eliots pre-Somerset home, its scenery, Dorset, highly civilised, TSE feels at home in, TSE's Tandy weekend in, Durham, TSE's visit to, East Anglia, its churches, TSE now feels at home in, East Coker, Somerset, visited by Uncle Chris and Abby, TSE conceives desire to visit, reasons for visiting, described, visited again, and the Shamley Cokers, now within Father Underhill's diocese, photographs of, Finchampstead, Berkshire, visited by TSE and EH, specifically the Queen's Head, Framlingham, Suffolk, visited, Garsington, Oxfordshire, recalled, Glastonbury, Somerset, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, Gloucestershire, highly civilised, its beautiful edge, its countryside associated with EH, TSE at home in, its domestic architecture, Hadsleigh, Suffolk, visited, Hampshire, journey through, TSE's New Forest holiday, Hereford, highly civilised, Hull, Yorkshire, and 'Literature and the Modern World', Ilfracombe, Devon, and the Field Marshal, hideous, Knole Park, Kent, Lavenham, Suffolk, visited, Leeds, Yorkshire, TSE lectures in, touring Murder opens in, the Dobrées visited in, home to EVE's family, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, TSE's visit to, especially the Bishop's Palace, Lincolnshire, arouses TSE's curiosity, unknown to EH, Lingfield, Surrey, Little Gidding, Cambridgeshire, TSE's long-intended expedition to, London, in TSE's experience, TSE's isolation within, affords solitude and anonymity, contrasted to country life, its fogs, socially freer than Boston and Paris, eternally misty, its lionhunters, rain preferable in, more 'home' to TSE than America, socially more legible than Boston, its society compared to Boston's, TSE's desire to live among cockneys, South Kensington too respectable, Clerkenwell, Camberwell, Blackheath, Greenwich scouted for lodging, its comparatively vigorous religious life, Camberwell lodging sought, Clerkenwell lodging sought, and music-hall nostalgia, abandoned by society in August, the varieties of cockney, TSE's East End sojourn, South Kensington grows on TSE, prepares for Silver Jubilee, South Kensington street names, Dulwich hallowed in memory, so too Greenwich, during 1937 Coronation, preparing for war, Dulwich revisited with family, in wartime, TSE as air-raid warden in, Long Melford, Suffolk, Lowestoft, Suffolk, Lyme Regis, Dorset, with the Morleys, Marlborough, Wiltshire, scene of a happy drink, Needham Market, Suffolk, Newcastle, Northumberland, TSE's visit to, Norfolk, appeals to TSE, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, dreary, Nottinghamshire, described for EH, Oxford, Oxfordshire, as recollected by TSE, past and present, EH takes lodgings in, haunted for TSE, in July, compared to Cambridge, Peacehaven, Sussex, amazing sermon preached in, Penrith, TSE's visit to, Rochester, as Dickens described, Salisbury, Wiltshire, in the Richmonds' company, Shamley Green, Surrey, TSE's ARP work in, its post office, Pilgrim Players due at, Somerset, highly civilised, TSE at home in, Southwold, Suffolk, TSE visits with family, Stanton, Gloucestershire, on TSE and EH's walk, Stanway, Gloucestershire, on EH and TSE's walk, Suffolk, TSE visits with family, Surrey, Morley finds TSE lodging in, evening bitter at the Royal Oak, TSE misses, as it must have been, Sussex, commended to EH, TSE walking Stane Street and downs, EH remembers, Walberswick, Suffolk, Wells, Somerset, TSE on visiting, Whipsnade, Bedfordshire, EH and TSE visit, Whitchurch Canonicorum, Dorset, delightful name, Wiltshire, highly civilised, TSE at home in, Winchelsea, East Sussex, visited, Winchester, TSE on, Wisbech, Lincolnshire, TSE on visiting, Worcestershire, TSE feels at home in, Yeovil, Somerset, visited en route to East Coker, York, TSE's glimpse of, Yorkshire,
see also British General Election
Princeton University, according to TSE's fantasy, TSE engaged to lecture at, and Ronald Bottrall, TSE on his trip to, its architecture, compared to Harvard and Yale, Alumni Weekly print TSE's More tribute, possible wartime lectures at, and Allen Tate, among American colleges, extends wartime invitation to TSE, invites TSE to conference, Johnson lectures revamped for, confers honorary degree on TSE, and TSE's Institute for Advanced Study position, EH's information on, and Herbert Read, and EH's bequest,
Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur, remains King Edward VII Professor, his debt to R. L. Stevenson,

2.SirQuiller-Couch, Sir Arthur Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863–1944) – ‘Q’ – critic, poet, novelist, editor and anthologist; King Edward VII Professor of English Literature, Cambridge, Fellow of Jesus College. His publications include the Oxford Book of English Verse 1250– 1900 (1900) and On the Art of Writing (lectures, 1916). See further A. L. Rowse, Quiller Couch: A Portrait of ‘Q’ (1988).

Thorp, Willard, introduced by TSE to Dobrée, at the Criterion meeting, grows on TSE, teaches Ombre to the Eliots, EH thinks of entrusting letters to, seems lifeless, has stiffening effect on TSE, requests Paul More tribute, which he delivers to More, congratulates TSE on Family Reunion, invited TSE to Princeton, due to teach at Harvard, compared to Margaret, resembles Sweden's Crown Prince, formally notified of EH's bequest, objects to TSE's 50-year moratorium, and EH's 'recordings', seeks again to shorten moratorium, but again refused, invited to petition TSE directly, but shifts responsibility to Dix, makes transcript of EH's 'recording',
see also Thorps, the

1.Margaret Thorp, née Farrand (1891–1970), contemporary and close friend of EH; noted author and biographer. WillardThorp, Willard Thorp (1899–1990) was a Professor of English at Princeton University. See Biographical Register. See further Lyndall Gordon, Hyacinth Girl, 126–8, 158–9.

Thorps, the, EH brings to TSE's notice, to tea chez Eliot, take flat in Lincoln's Inn, attend TSE's Poetry Bookshop reading, VHE invites to party, host the Eliots to tea, grow on TSE, host the Eliots for claret, cheesecake and Ombre, invite VHE to supper, compared to the Noyeses, take offence where none intended, called on in Princeton, appear in Campden, worth discussing American politics with, TSE imagines living with, TSE against leaving letters to, likeness to the Webbs, EH on, differentiated, take in worthy Chaplin exhibition, unrelaxing hosts, advise EH over terms of Princeton bequest, and EH's 'recording', pushing EH to write autobiography,
Trend, John Brande ('J. B.'), part of Criterion inner-circle,

3.J. B. TrendTrend, John Brande ('J. B.') (1887–1958), journalist, musicologist – he wrote articles on music for the Criterion – was to become Professor of Spanish at Cambridge, 1933–52. See Margaret Joan Anstee, JB – An Unlikely Spanish Don: The Life & Times of John Brande Trend (Sussex Academic Press, 2013).

University of Cambridge, and I. A. Richards, TSE dreams of professorship at, and English intellectual hierarchy, refreshingly austere, less painful than Oxford, confers honorary degree on TSE, King Edward VII Professorship,