[22 Paradise Rd., Northampton, Mass.]
Ipoetryand TSE's new drawing-desk;b6 amFlat 3, 11 Emperor's Gatedrawing desk acquired for;b1 writing this (and using my new drawing desk which arrived yesterday, and on which I can write standing up, but I am afraid it will only do for poetry, which is written two or three lines at a time with long intervals, and not for continuous prose or letters which I can do better sitting down anyway, as it wobbles rather) to catch the Berengaria, which has been delayed a day by storms. MorleyMorley, Frank Vigorheads for New York and Baltimore;h4 is sailing on the same vessel, but will spend half of his time in New York and the rest in Baltimore, and expects to have only a day in Boston on business just before he returns. OnMurder in the Cathedral1938 American tour;f6EH's judgement desired;b3 Monday next the Murder will open in Boston, and I very much hope that you will be able to attend it, and I hope that you will agree that the chorus is the best of its kind that we have had. IFamily Reunion, Thework suspended till summer;d1 have done all that I can at present to The Family Reunion (it shall keep this title until a final title is fixed) and am typing it out again, to have a fair copy for Martin to work upon; and I suppose the final work will be done in May or June. SoOld Possum’s Book of Practical CatsTSE at leisure to write;b9 I shall have an unexpected interval in which to do a few more Cats1 and a good deal (I hope) of reading: because I cannot settle down to any piece of new writing, certainly not poetry, until this play is altogether off my hands – which means, until it is produced. (I hope at least that there will be some rehearsing for you to see in September).
I overslept this morning, I think due to a tiring day yesterday. IBarnes, DjunaTSE's exhausting lunch with;a5 shouldSeaverns, Helenentertained by TSE;b7 not have got so tired trying to entertain Mrs. Seaverns last night if I had not had to deal with Djuna Barnes (in a frightful state of nerves and depression about her future work) at lunch. And I am sorry to find that I have four more evenings out, in a stretch: tonightFabers, thetake TSE to pantomime again;e2 theGerard Hopkinses, the;a2 pantomime with Hopkins’s and Fabers,2 tomorrowHutchinsons, the;b6 the Hutchinsons, ThursdayMonro, Alida (née Klementaski);c2 Alida Monro (a half-yearly event, now) andTomlin, E. Walter F.;a5 Friday one of my young men named Tomlin. ButHayward, John;h9 I shall have a weekend entirely to myself, as John is going to the country.
I have your note of the 11th and your short letter of the 12th to answer. (IPriestley, J. B.Time and the Conways;b1 was interested by the review of ‘Time and the Conways’, which struck me as very just. I do not think that the play could have been quite so well cast as for the London performance. Priestley has been very well served in his actors, though. I am only afraid with my play that it will demand very intelligent actors to comprehend that the verse is verse and must be spoken as such: to a conventional actor it will seem like chopped up prose, and it would be fatally easy to read it as prose).
ItNoyes, Penelope Barkerpotential host for Murder cast;e1 wouldSpeaight, Robert;d3 beBrownes, the Martin;b6 very nice if Penelope could have Speaight and the Brownes there. I particularly hope that the chorus girls will have a chance to meet some nice people; but there are nine of them, and if it means asking the whole company together that would be rather a strain on the hospitality of most of my friends. ButWaterfield, Phoebesingled out from Murder chorus;a1 IMercury Theatre, London;b8 commend especially one Phoebe Waterfield, who has been in the play since it started at the Mercury, and has also been most valuable as wardrobe manager etc.3
WellHale, Emilybirthdays, presents and love-tokens;w2TSE given diary and hairbrush box;d6, I still think my idea about the brush case a good one, so I shall keep this box at home, and it is rather too good for office wear and dust anyway.
YesDukes, Ashley;d6, I do hope that you can get Dukes to speak at Smith; he might be able to manage it on a journey between New York and Boston.
Youtravels, trips and plansEH's 1938 summer in England;d1and whether EH should spend it at Campden;a1 mention two matters of importance. IHale, Emilyfamily;w4EH's relations with aunt and uncle;a6 think you were very right to raise the subject of your position at Campden now, and not leave it to the last; though I realise how painful and difficult it must have been. The earlier this is settled, however, the less painful for everybody. I should like to know more of what other designs you form for part of the summer, and discuss the problem with you – how the summer can be divided up between visits with possible American friends (contemporaries) in England, visits to English friends, and perhaps a little more of London – within the possible financial limits. But you should know, to begin with, that I feel strongly about your being so continuously at Campden; and I did put it to you on the ground of conscience (since I thought that argument would find the readiest reception from you) that it was your duty to Smith to see your summer primarily for rest and recreation – or to any other college where you might teach.
The difficulty, of course, is one which almost inevitably arises with much older relatives who feel in loco parentis. Parents themselves are always inclined to take for granted that they understand their children; or if they find anything in their children which they consciously don’t understand, to regard it as a matter for grief and disappointment. Thus they fail to learn – and the only way to understand anybody is to go on learning: one never gets, with anybody, to the point at which one can afford to stop learning. And old people, who are relatively fixed, fail to realise that younger people are continuously changing. ISeaverns, HelenTSE hesitates to confide in;b8 think that Mrs. Seaverns (for instance) as an outsider, and one who retains considerable sympathy with younger folk, might be able to sympathise with this situation; I did not feel that the time was quite ripe for mentioning it to her, and was not quite sure that you would wish me to do so. She had been ill, she told me, and was on the point of going to Hove (driven by Parrott, of course) for ten days.
TheOckenden, Revd Albion C.;a2 other matter is your Mr. Ockenden; but I have not the time left to start on that now, and must reserve it for the Normandie three days hence.
Tell me more about your daily life in the winter term; and the weather, and if you have got a new warm coat.
1.TSEOld Possum’s Book of Practical Cats;c1 inscribed a TS draft copy of ‘Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats’, on 18 July 1938: ‘for Miss Emily Hale, this not quite final text, from Old Possum’ (Scripps).
2.Geoffrey Faber’s diary, Tues. 22 Jan.: ‘Dined with [Gerard] Hopkins, & to Pantomime, with them & TSE.’
3.PhoebeWaterfield, Phoebe Waterfield (b. 1912) later worked with the Adelphi Players and the Pilgrim Players.
1.DjunaBarnes, Djuna Barnes (1892–1982): American novelist, journalist, poet, playwright; author of Ryder (1928); Nightwood (her masterpiece, 1936); Antiphon (play, 1958). See ‘A Rational Exchange’, New Yorker, 24 June and 1 July 1996, 107–9; Nightwood: The Original Version and Related Drafts, ed. Cheryl J. Plumb (1995); Miriam Fuchs, ‘Djuna Barnes and T. S. Eliot: Authority, Resistance, and Acquiescence’, Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 12: 2 (Fall 1993), 289–313. Andrew Field, Djuna: The Formidable Miss Barnes (1983, 1985), 218: ‘Willa Muir was struck by the difference that came over Eliot when he was with Barnes. She thought that the way Barnes had of treating him with an easy affectionate camaraderie caused him to respond with an equally easy gaiety that she had never seen in Eliot before.’ See Letters 8 for correspondence relating to TSE’s friendship with Barnes, and with her friend, the sassy, irresistible Emily Holmes Coleman, and the brilliant editing of Nightwood.
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.JohnHayward, John Davy Hayward (1905–65), editor and critic: see Biographical Register.
3.AlidaMonro, Alida (née Klementaski) Klementaski (1892–1969) married Harold Monro on 27 Mar. 1920: see Alida Monro in Biographical Register.
4.FrankMorley, Frank Vigor Vigor Morley (1899–1980), American publisher and author; a founding editor of F&F, 1929–39: see Biographical Register.
12.PenelopeNoyes, Penelope Barker Barker Noyes (1891–1977), who was descended from settlers of the Plymouth Colony, lived in a historic colonial house (built in 1894 for her father James Atkins Noyes) at 1 Highland Street, Cambridge, MA. Unitarian. She was a close friend of EH.
5.RevdOckenden, Revd Albion C. Albion C. Ockenden (ca. 1889–1937), Rector of St John’s Episcopal Church, Northampton, Mass., from 1926.
1.J. B. PriestleyPriestley, J. B. (1894–1984), novelist, playwright, social commentator, broadcaster; author of bestselling novels including The Good Companions (1929) and Angel Pavement (1930); and plays including Time and the Conways (1937) and An Inspector Calls (1945).
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.
10.E. WalterTomlin, E. Walter F. F. Tomlin (1914–88), writer and administrator; author of a memoir T. S. Eliot: A Friendship (1988): see Biographical Register.