[240 Crescent St., Northampton, Mass.]
I have your pencilled letter of the 12th from Penelope’s, and your letter of the 14th (the former is a letter and the latter is a note, only the former is in pencil and the latter in ink) from Northampton. Alas I can only write a ‘note’ (according to your exact measurements) in reply. TheSt. Stephen's Church, Gloucester Roadvestry goings-on;a2 first part of this evening went in writing business notes, signing Vestry cheques, and writing a note to the vicar to say: ‘What about the item in petty cash “Blake one pound for looking after garden?”’; andCatholic Literature AssociationTSE composing speech for;a3 after I have written to you I must spend the rest of the evening in composing a speech to make tomorrow afternoon to the General Meeting of the Catholic Literature Association. I shall have some time tomorrow evening and also Friday evening: so I shall probably write again, and more collectedly, either tomorrow or Friday. I certainly shall not after that for several days, becauseFaber, Geoffreyand the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle;f2 on Saturday IHoskyns, Edwyn Clementand the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle;a4 haveCorpus Christi College, Cambridgeand the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle;b1 to go to Cambridge with Faber (you may remember that we started in November but were withheld by fog and went to the pictures instead) to discuss the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Divinity Books with the Master of Corpus and Sir Edwyn Hoskyns.1 AndBelgion, Montgomeryarranges dinner for Murder;b7 onSavile Club, Londonhosts dinner honouring Murder;a2 MondayDukes, Ashley;c5 eveningSpeaight, Robertat Savile Club Murder dinner;c7 thereBrowne, Elliott Martinat Savile Club Murder dinner;b6 is to be a dinner in honour of ‘Murder in the Cathedral’ at the Savile Club. BecauseMurder in the Cathedral1937 Duchess Theatre West End transfer;e8coming to an end;a8 atMurder in the Cathedral1937 touring production;e9scheduled post-Duchess;a1 the end of the week ‘Murder’ is to come off from the Duchess Theatre and go on tour; so Montgomery Belgion has got up this dinner, with Ashley Dukes and Bobby Speaight and Martin Browne and myself and a number of other people, no speeches and no evening dress, and Belgion says we shall have a very good Chateau Margaux. INorth Kensington 'Community Centre'TSE makes appeal on behalf of;a4 have delivered my appeal on behalf of the North Kensington Community Centre, and I am told I did it quite well, and so far I have got in about £40 including the Misses Linwell of Tunbridge Wells who sent a subscription of sixpence for which I have written to thank them (I said ‘send your subscription, for which I will thank you myself …’) but I expect about a hundred pounds more – and I appealed for £5000.2 So by Tuesday I may be able to write again.
LastSeaverns, Helencharms TSE;b3 night I dined alone with Mrs. Seaverns – alone with her – a very nice dinner – and we had a very pleasant evening. I think she is intelligent and perceptive – andtravels, trips and plansEH's 1937 summer in England;c7and Mrs Seaverns;a5 I [am] glad to think that she will be at Campden for a week next summer – and I think that she is appreciative of you and ready to understand your difficulties. I find her very congenial.
I do hope that you have become absorbed in your work again: becoming ‘confused in class’ is a small matter when one really cares about the progress of the individuals who compose it – any one who takes their work seriously may often feel ‘confused’ in trying to explain it, and not being thoroughly glib. Of course I wish that you might get the kind of work, with dramatic production, that you really care for: but it is a great thing to do for these girls what you are set to try to do: and also if you have a couple of years at Smith, that should help very much in getting the work you want, somewhere else.
MyFamily Reunion, The;a7 dear, I count the time until you arrive in England. I only want to employ my time meanwhile so as to have something to show you (even if not to show anyone else) towards a play, when I see you.
I am not so sure that I am satisfied with that Photograph. It might have been worse, but it might have been so much better. Still, there it is, for better or worse, framed, on my bedroom wall.
[‘SongOld Possum’s Book of Practical Cats'Song of the Jellicles';e3 ofOld Possum’s Book of Practical Catsindividual poems sent to EH;a4 the Jellicles’ enclosed]
1.GeoffreyFaber, Geoffrey;f2n Faber to Hoskyns, 30 Oct. 1936: ‘There is another matter about which Eliot and I should very much like to consult you, and that is the possibility of our producing a series of divinity books for the better class secondary and public schools. We should like to know whether you think this a good idea – it arises out of a resolution adopted at the Felsted Conference of public school masters … So far as we are concerned the idea is still in a very vague stage, but it would help us very much to define our own ideas if we could have a talk with you.’
2.The Community Centre at Dalgarno Gardens, North Kensington, London, was set up to serve the needs of the Housing Estate flats built by the Sutton, Peabody and Kensington Housing Trusts. TSE spoke on behalf of the North Kensington Community Centre in ‘The Week’s “Good Cause” Appeal’. See CProse 5, 407–9. TSE’s appeal attracted contributions from 160 people, yielding £100. H. B. Vaisey, KC, chairman, wrote on 2 Feb. 1937: ‘I can only say that the help which you have given us is, in my view, invaluable.’
4.MontgomeryBelgion, Montgomery (‘Monty’) Belgion (1892–1973), author and journalist: see Biographical Register.
4.E. MartinBrowne, Elliott Martin Browne (1900–80), English director and producer, was to direct the first production of Murder in the Cathedral: see Biographical Register.
4.AshleyDukes, Ashley Dukes (1885–1959), theatre manager, playwright, critic, translator, adapter, author; from 1933, owner of the Mercury Theatre, London: see Biographical Register.
11.GeoffreyFaber, Geoffrey Faber (1889–1961), publisher and poet: see Biographical Register.
8.EdwynHoskyns, Edwyn Clement Clement Hoskyns, 13th Baronet (1884–1937), theologian; Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he was successively Dean of Chapel, Librarian and President. His works in biblical theology include The Fourth Gospel (1940) and Crucifixion-Resurrection (1981); and he published an English translation of Karl Barth’s Epistle to the Romans (1933). See Gordon S. Wakefield, ‘Hoskyns and Raven: The Theological Issue’, Theology, Nov. 1975, 568–76; Wakefield, ‘Edwyn Clement Hoskyns’, in E. C. Hoskyns and F. N. Davey, Crucifixion-Resurrection (1981); and R. E. Parsons, Sir Edwyn Hoskyns as Biblical Theologian (1985).
3.HelenSeaverns, Helen Seaverns, widow of the American-born businessman and Liberal MP, Joel Herbert Seaverns: 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.