[240 Crescent St., Northampton, Mass.]
I must try to acquire a different practice of letter-writing, and learn to write short notes when there is no time for letters. As it is, I have always been ashamed of my letters (to you) unless they covered at least two pages and a half, and contained (1) full information of my life since my last letter (2) practical remarks about your own activities (3) a little wit & humour (4) profound meditations (4) [sic] adequate expression of love and devotion. So you see that I am almost never satisfied. But it is a silly habit to postpone until one can find time for everything at once, because as a recipient I don’t feel that way at all; and the more time elapses, the more ground there is to cover, and one never catches up. Last week I was unlucky in the sailings of boats – the boats came in the first part of the week when I was very busy – and when I had time towards the weekend there were no boats. TheBritish Red Cross Societywhich proves a distasteful experience;a3 chief burden last week was the performance at Londonderry House on behalf of the Red Cross League – a particularly distasteful kind of audience to speak to. I call it a performance, because we were really a series of music hall turns for dull society people to gape at; talking on an impossible subject: ‘Why I find the World a good place to live in and why I do not’. TheMacaulay, Rose;a1 performersIrwin, Margaret;a1 wereKennedy, MargaretThe Constant Nymph on stage;a2 RoseDay Lewis, Ceciladdresses Red Cross Society;a1 MacaulayWolfe, Humbertat Red Cross do;a3,1 Margaret Irwin,2 Margaret Kennedy3 (have you ever heard of them? they are successful novelists, I believe), Cecil Day Lewis,4 Humbert Wolfe and myself. Daycommunismpreached by Cecil Day Lewis;b4 Lewis made the mistake of taking the occasion seriously, and preaching earnest communism which made me embarrassed on his account. I confined myself to humour for the benefit of the audience (jokes at Humbert Wolfe’s expense, which he took in good part) and irony for my own: but the occasion was so uncongenial that I did not do it well. IFaber, Enid Eleanorpresses TSE into public speaking;a6 should never take part in such an affair if I could help it, but as Enid Faber is keenly interested in the Red Cross League, and had asked me, how could I have refused?5
No more public speaking for a long time, anyway, and every morning on the play – even so, difficult to get every morning: yesterday I had to go to my doctor for a final anti-cold injection for the rest of the year, soJanes, W. L.disturbed by disappearing cats;b2 Icatspossible abduction of Janes's pet;a3 combined with it a visit to Janes, whom I had not seen since Christmas but once. He is very upset by the disappearance of his pet cat – says that a lot of black cats have disappeared from his neighbourhood and is sure that some one is out for their skins. IfFamily Reunion, TheTSE on writing;b4 all goes smoothly I should finish the first part of my play (but it’s only the FIRST DRAFT, I remind myself, andDukes, Ashley;c7 I shall be gratified if Dukes thinks well enough of it to regard it even as that) andEvans, Edithconsidered for The Family Reunion;a7 itHale, Emilyas actor;v8potentially in The Family Reunion;c4 hasWhitty, Dame Mayconsidered for The Family Reunion;a1 a nice part for Edith Evans or yourself, and quite a fair part for that old lady in the wheel chair in ‘Night Must Fall’.6
I'drugs'either public or inner life;a5 was much interested in yourAmericaNorthampton, Massachusetts;g3its spiritual atmosphere;a7 remarks in your letter of the 9th which arrived this morning, about trying to arouse public spirit in Northampton. I do approve of it highly! because (for one reason) it is good, I think, for people ‘living in the world’ to keep a balance between their public activities and their inner spiritual discipline and practice, and neglect neither. Though the latter is more difficult for most of us than the former, and brings less immediate satisfaction. One gets praise for outward action, sometimes, but never for the work one does on oneself; and also one never feels sure that one is progressing – that is part of the nature of the task, for the moment we feel confident that we have improved our spiritual life we are either checking our advance or sliding back (‘the saints never feel that they are saints’). At the same time, I think that outer action is necessary too, to prevent self-training from becoming self-absorption; and in studying the spiritual life, except under such wise and understanding direction as few can ever expect to find, we can be in danger of getting our standards and ideals muddled. And for yourself, in the one as in the other, you must remember not to tax your strength too far. You have had a very hard year, the work with the students ought to come more easily, and leave you more time and energy for expressing and developing yourself in other ways.7
Itravels, trips and plansEH's 1937 summer in England;c7;a6 look forward impatiently – through this long cold winter – to your coming in June, and to Campden as well as London. We shallFlat 3, 11 Emperor's GateTSE moving to;a2 probably move round the corner to Emperor’s Gate at the beginning of April – Itravels, trips and plansTSE's 1937 tour of Scotland;c5;a1 hope that they will get it done during the three or four days that I am in Scotland; so for the present you might write to Russell Square (marking the envelopes PRIVATE!) until I cable the change. ByBrowne, Elliott Martinand Tewkesbury Festival Murder confusion;b9 theMurder in the Cathedral1937 Tewkesbury Drama Festival production;f4 way, Martin Browne is to do ‘Murder’ (he hopes with the same company) at Tewksbury Festival on the 18th July: IWorld Conference of Churches, 1937TSE's address to;a1 have to be in Oxford the preceding week: so it would be nice if you could let me come over to Campden from Oxford and we could go to see it together. It will, as always, be strange and wonderful to see you again – I can hardly bear to think of it long, beforehand. Good bye for the present, my Love, and forgive my poor letters.
1.RoseMacaulay, Rose Macaulay (1881–1958), novelist, biographer, travel writer. Her fictions include Dangerous Ages (1921); Told by an Idiot (1923); Keeping Up Appearances (1928); The Towers of Trebizond (1956). Created DBE, 1957. (TSE’s secretary Brigid O’Donovan was Macaulay’s goddaughter.)
2.MargaretIrwin, Margaret Irwin (1889–1967), historical novelist (her fictions being founded on considerable historical accuracy). Her works include too That Great Lucifer: A Portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh (1960).
3.MargaretKennedy, Margaret Kennedy (1896–1967), prolific popular novelist, esteemed above all for The Constant Nymph (1924), a bestseller which the author herself adapted for stage and screen.
4.CecilDay Lewis, Cecil Day Lewis (1904–72), Anglo-Irish poet and novelist (author of mystery novels under the pseud. Nicholas Blake); Oxford Professor of Poetry, 1951–6; Norton Professor at Harvard, 1962–3; Poet Laureate, 1968–72. Educated at Wadham College, Oxford, he edited with Auden the anthology Oxford Poetry 1927. For a period in the mid-1930s he was a member of the Communist Party. After WW2 he worked as a director and senior editor of the publishers Chatto & Windus. His poetry includes From Feathers to Iron (1932), The Complete Poems of C. Day-Lewis (1992); critical works include A Hope for Poetry (1934); The Poetic Image (1947); and The Buried Day (autobiography, 1960). He was made CBE, 1950; and appointed Poet Laureate in 1968. See Sean Day-Lewis, C. Day Lewis: An English Literary Life (1980); Peter Stanford, C. Day-Lewis: A Life (1998).
5.Geoffrey Faber’s diary, 10 Mar.: ‘Dined alone with Mother, E[nid] being out at her Red X debate with the unfortunate T.S.E. in tow’ (Faber Archive).
6.TheWhitty, Dame May part of Mrs Bramson, in Emlyn Williams’s thriller Night Must Fall (which premiered at the Duchess Theatre, London, in 1935), was played by Dame May Whitty (1865–1948).
7.SeeMcPherrin, Jeanette;e3n too TSE to Jeanette McPherrin, 17 Mar. 1937: ‘I … wish that Emily might be coming to England in almost any other circumstances. I have even taken it seriously enough, and have felt unselfishly enough, to wish that she might rather be spending the summer in America, if among the right people! However, I shall do what I can – though one’s battling has to be so very indirect! The fact that she has been reappointed at Smith is very helpful: but I wish that Smith was a few hundred miles, at least, away from where it is. I agree that on the whole her letters seem more wholesome, though she is still, I think, much too concerned with “selfimprovement”. But I was cheered by her last letter, because she was exercised about trying to get public opinion in Northampton working for the improvement of a hideous café or coffee stall in the main street, patronised by the girls. That kind of activity is all to the good, in her case’ (Scripps).
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.CecilDay Lewis, Cecil Day Lewis (1904–72), Anglo-Irish poet and novelist (author of mystery novels under the pseud. Nicholas Blake); Oxford Professor of Poetry, 1951–6; Norton Professor at Harvard, 1962–3; Poet Laureate, 1968–72. Educated at Wadham College, Oxford, he edited with Auden the anthology Oxford Poetry 1927. For a period in the mid-1930s he was a member of the Communist Party. After WW2 he worked as a director and senior editor of the publishers Chatto & Windus. His poetry includes From Feathers to Iron (1932), The Complete Poems of C. Day-Lewis (1992); critical works include A Hope for Poetry (1934); The Poetic Image (1947); and The Buried Day (autobiography, 1960). He was made CBE, 1950; and appointed Poet Laureate in 1968. See Sean Day-Lewis, C. Day Lewis: An English Literary Life (1980); Peter Stanford, C. Day-Lewis: A Life (1998).
4.AshleyDukes, Ashley Dukes (1885–1959), theatre manager, playwright, critic, translator, adapter, author; from 1933, owner of the Mercury Theatre, London: see Biographical Register.
2.EdithEvans, Edith Evans (1888–1976), versatile stage and screen actor; enduringly celebrated for her appearance as Lady Bracknell in the film of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (1952). Evans won her reputation during her long association (from 1925) with the Old Vic, London: her other notable roles included Judith Bliss in Noel Coward’s Hay Fever on the stage and the movie Tom Jones (1963). DBE, 1946.
1.TSE was mistaken here. EnidFaber, Enid Eleanor Eleanor Faber (1901–95) was the daughter of Sir Henry Erle Richards (1861–1922), Fellow of All Souls College and Chichele Professor of International Law and Diplomacy at Oxford University, and Mary Isabel Butler (1868–1945).
2.MargaretIrwin, Margaret Irwin (1889–1967), historical novelist (her fictions being founded on considerable historical accuracy). Her works include too That Great Lucifer: A Portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh (1960).
4.W. L. JanesJanes, W. L. (1854–1939), ex-policeman who worked as handyman for the Eliots. Having been superannuated from the police force early in the century, he worked for a period (until about 1921) as a plain-clothes detective in the General Post Office. TSE reminisced to Mary Trevelyan on 2 Apr. 1951: ‘If I ever write my reminiscences, which I shan’t, Janes would have a great part in them’ (‘The Pope of Russell Square’). TSE to Adam Roberts (b. 1940; godson of TSE), 12 Dec. 1955: ‘I … knew a retired police officer, who at one period had to snoop in plain clothes in the General Post Office in Newgate Street – he caught several culprits, he said’ (Adam Roberts). HisJanes, Ada wife was Ada Janes (d. 1935).
3.MargaretKennedy, Margaret Kennedy (1896–1967), prolific popular novelist, esteemed above all for The Constant Nymph (1924), a bestseller which the author herself adapted for stage and screen.
1.RoseMacaulay, Rose Macaulay (1881–1958), novelist, biographer, travel writer. Her fictions include Dangerous Ages (1921); Told by an Idiot (1923); Keeping Up Appearances (1928); The Towers of Trebizond (1956). Created DBE, 1957. (TSE’s secretary Brigid O’Donovan was Macaulay’s goddaughter.)
2.JeanetteMcPherrin, Jeanette McPherrin (1911–92), postgraduate student at Scripps College; friend of EH: see Biographical Register.
6.TheWhitty, Dame May part of Mrs Bramson, in Emlyn Williams’s thriller Night Must Fall (which premiered at the Duchess Theatre, London, in 1935), was played by Dame May Whitty (1865–1948).
5.HumbertWolfe, Humbert Wolfe (1885–1940) – originally Umberto Wolff (the family became British citizens in 1891, and he changed his name in 1918) – poet, satirist, critic, civil servant. The son of Jewish parents (his father was German, his mother Italian), he was born in Bradford (where his father was in a wool business), and went to the Grammar School there. A graduate of Wadham College, Oxford, he worked at the Board of Trade and the Ministry of Labour, and spent time as UK representative at the International Labour Organisation in Geneva. He found fame with Requiem (1927), and in 1930 was mooted as a successor to Robert Bridges as Poet Laureate. He edited over forty books of verse and prose, and wrote many reviews. See Philip Bagguley, Harlequin in Whitehall: A Life of Humbert Wolfe, Poet and Civil Servant, 1885–1940 (1997).