[240 Crescent St., Northampton, Mass.]
Italcoholwhisky as medicine;b1 is over a week since I have written, and it seems much longer. I caught a violent and unmistakeable head cold last Thursday – sneezes and sneezes – the conventional precautions of Whisky, Aspirin and a mustard bath proved quite useless – so I spent Friday and most of Saturday in bed, and was completely cured on Sunday. It has not shaken my faith in inoculations, because it remained a head cold instead of getting at the chest as always before, and it went very quickly. I think it is simply that my body occasionally insists on having a day or two sleeping in bed, and so put up the only pretense it knows – anyway, I felt better after it than before. It unfortunately occurred at a time when there were no engagements to be cancelled except the dentist (who is still working away at my broken tooth) andFabers, theand Morleys take TSE to pantomime;d6 IMorleys, theand Fabers take TSE to pantomime;i5 was up and about in time to fulfil my engagement to go to the Pantomime with the Fabers and Morleys (Christina wouldn’t go because she hates Pantomimes): ‘CinderellaColiseum, The, Londonpanto (Cinderella) delights TSE;a1’ at the Coloseum [sc. Coliseum] on the Monday.1 It seemed to me, who had never been to a Panto before, to be a very degenerate specimen of a very good tradition. Possibly it is part of the pantomime tradition that nobody in it can act. But I want to try again next year with some other classic of the pantomime stage, such as Ali Baba. OnMaclagans, thedemand TSE read Burnt Norton;a2Maclagan, Eric
I'Church's Message to the World, The';a5 am'Introduction' (to Revelation);a8 looking forward to the end of my travaux forcés: my BBC talk is on Tuesday evening, and I hope to finish my Revelation article tomorrow, andCriterion, TheApril 1937;d3'Commentary';a1 then I have to write my Commentary, andNew English Weekly;a8 during'Mr Reckitt, Mr Tomlin, and the Crisis';a1 next week do some notes on the Late Crisis for the New English Weekly,3 and then I am quite free. I don’t know whether I shall like my Revelation Article or not; it is quite a long one, for me, as it is already 27 pages and should be about 34 altogether, and I daren’t read over what I have written until I have finished. YouBaillie, Very Revd Johninspects Revelation contribution;a4 shallOldham, Josephsent TSE's Revelation contribution;b7 see it as soon as I have a proof: but I have to send the top copy to John Baillie in Edinburgh, and the carbon to Oldham. ButLawrence, David Herbert ('D. H.')represented better in Revelation;a9 IPage-Barbour Lectures, The (afterwards After Strange Gods)TSE regrets comments on D. H. Lawrence;b3After Strange Gods
In your letter of February you speak of your relations with older women – IWhibley, Charlesas older male friend;a9 alsoMore, Paul Elmerimportant older male friend;b5 owe a good deal to friendships with older men, especially Charles Whibley and Paul More. The enclosed from More’s daughter gave me a great deal of pleasure, especially as I can reciprocate and say that I feel closer to More than to any other of my friends.4
I'Church's Message to the World, The'fee donated to St. Stephen's;a6 will send you next week the ‘Listener’ print of my talk. I am NOT profiting by it: the BBC give fifteen guineas, butSt. Stephen's Church, Gloucester Roadreceives TSE's BBC fee;a7 I felt that one ought not to take money for doing a thing like that, so I have asked them to pay it to the Endowment Fund of St. Stephen’s. But I am getting 26 guineas for my 17th Century poetry selections, so I ought to be able to forego the other without feeling magnanimous about it.
I do hope, dear, that after your mild winter you are not now afflicted with extreme cold – because I think Northampton might be a very cold place indeed. Don’t think that in anything I said about one’s attitude towards pupils, I supposed for a moment that you were failing to give yourself completely to them. But some ‘giving oneself’ is exhausting, and some is life-giving, and one has to learn to give to others in a way that is at the same time giving to oneself! I feel quite sure that you will do more for them and feel a greater assurance of success this term than before. And I do hope that you will be at Smith for another year at least, because it ought to provide a backing for getting almost any kind of job elsewhere that you want, including the producing of plays.
‘MurderMurder in the Cathedral1937 touring production;e9beginning in Leeds, then Manchester;a2’ isEnglandLeeds, Yorkshire;g5touring Murder opens in;a3 really going on the road: it starts in a week’s time at Leeds for a fortnight, and thence to Manchester.
LentChristianitythe Church Year;d8prompts thoughts of EH;b6 has begun suddenly, so early that one is not prepared for it. Ash Wednesday is over, and Easter does not seem far off. IChristianitythe Church Year;d8Advent;a1 like to think that we are especially together at such seasons, Advent and Lent, just as I always feel you especially beside me when I pray. IOckenden, Revd Albion C.discusses confirmation with EH;a1 amHale, Emilyreligious beliefs and practices;x1the possibility of confirmation;a9 glad that Mr. Ockenden5 spoke to you about confirmation; and although I can understand that you cannot give the mind to it during this first and difficult year of teaching in a new kind, yet I hope that you will be at Smith another year at least, and that you will consider seriously taking advantage of this a year hence. After all, one cannot go on being a Unitarian and a Trinitarian at the same time.
I do long for you to be sitting before the fire with me, in the evening when I am alone. And when I wake up in the morning, always. And I long for June to come. ButFamily Reunion, The;a7 I hope that I may have something, in the way of dramatic poetry, to offer you by then!
1.Geoffrey Faber’s diary, Mon, 8 Feb.: ‘The Morleys stayed with us, & we all went to the Pantomime, with Tom Eliot, at the Coliseum. Rather empty; but not bad fun.’
2.HelenWaddell, Helen Waddell (1889–1965), Irish scholar, translator, poet, playwright; assistant editor of The Nineteenth Century and After; vice-president of the Irish Literary Society (W. B. Yeats was a friend). Works include The Wandering Scholars (1927); Medieval Latin Lyrics (1929); The Desert Fathers (1936). See Felicitas Corrigan, Helen Waddell: A Biography (1986).
3.‘Mr Reckitt, Mr Tomlin, and the Crisis’, New English Weekly 10 (25 Feb. 1937), 391–3: CProse 5, 449–56.
4.Mrs Harry B. Fine, daughter of Paul Elmer More, lived on East Nassau Street, Princeton.
5.RevdOckenden, Revd Albion C. Albion C. Ockenden (ca. 1889–1937), Rector of St John’s Episcopal Church, Northampton, Mass., from 1926.
3.VeryBaillie, Very Revd John Revd John Baillie (1886–1960), distinguished Scottish theologian; minister of the Church of Scotland; Roosevelt Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Seminary, New York, 1930–4; and was Professor of Divinity at Edinburgh University, 1934–59. In 1919 he married Florence Jewel Fowler (1893–1969), whom he met in service in France during WW1. Author of What is Christian Civilization? (lectures, 1945). See Keith Clements, ‘John Baillie and “the Moot”’, in Christ, Church and Society: Essays on John Baillie and Donald Baillie, ed. D. Fergusson (Edinburgh, 1993); Clements, ‘Oldham and Baillie: A Creative Relationship’, in God’s Will in a Time of Crisis: A Colloquium Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Baillie Commission, ed. A. R. Morton (Edinburgh, 1994).
2.EducatedBarnes, George at King’s College, Cambridge, George Barnes (1904–60) was assistant secretary at Cambridge University Press, 1930–5. In 1935 he joined the Talks Department of the BBC, becoming Director of Talks in 1941. Head of the Third Programme, 1946–8; Director of TV, 1950–6. From 1956 he was Principal of the University College of North Staffordshire. He was brother-in-law of Mary Hutchinson. Knighted 1953.
4.PaulMore, Paul Elmer Elmer More (1864–1937), critic, scholar, philosopher: see Biographical Register.
5.RevdOckenden, Revd Albion C. Albion C. Ockenden (ca. 1889–1937), Rector of St John’s Episcopal Church, Northampton, Mass., from 1926.
8.JosephOldham, Joseph (‘Joe’) Houldsworth Oldham (1874–1969), missionary, adviser, organiser: see Biographical Register.
2.GeoffreyTandy, Geoffrey Tandy (1900–69), marine biologist; Assistant Keeper of Botany at the Natural History Museum, London, 1926–47; did broadcast readings for the BBC (including the first reading of TSE’s Practical Cats on Christmas Day 1937): see Biographical Register.
2.HelenWaddell, Helen Waddell (1889–1965), Irish scholar, translator, poet, playwright; assistant editor of The Nineteenth Century and After; vice-president of the Irish Literary Society (W. B. Yeats was a friend). Works include The Wandering Scholars (1927); Medieval Latin Lyrics (1929); The Desert Fathers (1936). See Felicitas Corrigan, Helen Waddell: A Biography (1986).
7.CharlesWhibley, Charles Whibley (1859–1930), journalist and author: see Biographical Register.