[22 Paradise Rd., Northampton, Mass.]
I have to thank you for your letter of the 3d, which arrived yesterday by the Queen Mary; and this goes to you on the same ship. IHale, Irene (née Baumgras)descends on EH in Northampton;c1 am glad if Mrs. Hale has not made too many and too severe claims upon you, but I shall be gladder to hear that she has departed: though I am glad that she has had such a happy and important time in Northampton, inaugurating the library. IDukes, Ashleynegotiating with Saint-Denis;e9 haveSaint-Denis, Michelnegotiating with Dukes;a8 no further news of the play to give you since I last wrote: Dukes should have been negotiating with Michel St. Denis. IAuden, Wystan Hugh ('W. H.')On the Frontier (with Isherwood);d1 shall see Dukes on Monday, asKeyneses, theand TSE attend Auden–Isherwood premiere;a4 heArts Theatre, Cambridgestages On the Frontier;a1 is to motor me down to Cambridge on Monday afternoon, where we are to dine with the Keynes’s and see the première of ‘On the Frontier’, the Auden-Isherwood play. MeanwhileFamily Reunion, Thein proof;f2 I have been receiving the first sheets of galley proof of the printing.
ISeaverns, Helenand Perkinses dine with TSE;c2 dinedPerkinses, the;i3 with Mrs. Seaverns and the Perkins’s on Wednesday. I think the evening passed off successfully; itFowler-Seaverns, James;a1 was helped, for me, by Jim Fowler 1 being present.
EzraPound, EzraMorley halves burden of;c5 isMorley, Frank Vigorshoulders burden of EP;h9 still about. But as Morley has returned (his mother still alive, but now apparently sinking rapidly) he will have to share the burden a little. MyBoutwood Lectures (afterwards The Idea of a Christian Society)being prepared;a2 chief job at present, outside of Russell Square, is preparing for the lectures I have to give in Cambridge in February, on Church and State.2 There is a good deal of reading to be done. JanesJanes, W. L.dying in hospital;b6 has remained much the same, tenaciously.
WhereSmith Collegedespite feeling unsettled;c1 doHale, Emilyas teacher;w1unsettled at Smith;c7 you think that dramatic work would be possible, and of what sort? Do you mean in another college or university, or more professionally? I suppose that the latter is much more precarious, and might even offer less scope for interesting work. And how much would such more interesting work count, against just where you would be able to count upon finding more real friendship and companionship, than at Smith – thoughScripps College, Claremont;f7 I know of course that you had a few friends at Scripps who mattered very much more to you than anyone you see at present.
1.JamesFowler-Seaverns, James Fowler-Seaverns, adopted son of Joel and Helen Seaverns. TSE to Theodore Spencer, 9 Nov. 1938: ‘You may be presented within a month or two with a letter of introduction from me for a man named Jim Fowler, or he may call himself James Fowler Seaverns. He is a very nice lad (Harrow and Magdalene) not a bit literary, runs a business in London and Australia which has some mysterious connexion with Needham, Mass. Amongst other things he is marketing the Iron Lung. He has adoptive parents from Portland Maine but has never been in America before. He married a girl named Roper who is some collateral of St. Thos. More, she died this summer, and he is a widower with two small children. You will find him a nice innocent fellow who will appreciate anything convivial.’
2.WillSpens, Willand the Boutwood Lectures;a8n Spens, Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, hadBoutwood Lectures (afterwards The Idea of a Christian Society)Spens invites TSE to deliver;a1nIdea of a Christian Society, The
10.W. H. AudenAuden, Wystan Hugh ('W. H.') (1907–73), poet, playwright, librettist, translator, essayist, editor: 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.
1.JamesFowler-Seaverns, James Fowler-Seaverns, adopted son of Joel and Helen Seaverns. TSE to Theodore Spencer, 9 Nov. 1938: ‘You may be presented within a month or two with a letter of introduction from me for a man named Jim Fowler, or he may call himself James Fowler Seaverns. He is a very nice lad (Harrow and Magdalene) not a bit literary, runs a business in London and Australia which has some mysterious connexion with Needham, Mass. Amongst other things he is marketing the Iron Lung. He has adoptive parents from Portland Maine but has never been in America before. He married a girl named Roper who is some collateral of St. Thos. More, she died this summer, and he is a widower with two small children. You will find him a nice innocent fellow who will appreciate anything convivial.’
3.IreneHale, Irene (née Baumgras) Hale, née Baumgras, widow of Philip Hale, celebrated as the prolific and influential music critic of the Boston Herald. Irene Hale, who was herself an accomplished pianist, had studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, where she gained the Springer Gold Medal 1881, and continued with her studies in Europe under Raif and Moritz Mosckowski: she later wrote music under the name Victor Rene.
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).
4.FrankMorley, Frank Vigor Vigor Morley (1899–1980), American publisher and author; a founding editor of F&F, 1929–39: see Biographical Register.
3.Ezra PoundPound, Ezra (1885–1972), American poet and critic: see Biographical Register.
2.CompagnieSaint-Denis, Michel des Quinze: theatre production company organised by Michel Saint-Denis (nephew of Jacques Copeau), together with the playwright André Obey, at the Théatre du Vieux-Colombier, Paris, 1929–34.
3.HelenSeaverns, Helen Seaverns, widow of the American-born businessman and Liberal MP, Joel Herbert Seaverns: see Biographical Register.
7.WillSpens, Will Spens (1882–1962), educator and scientist; Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge: see Biographical Register.