[22 Paradise Rd., Northampton, Mass.]
I have to thank you for your dear letter of the 17th January, which I was very glad to get this week; but I was somewhat alarmed by finding that it, like the two preceding, had been addressed to ‘11, Grenville Place’, and so I cabled you. Thank you for your remarks about the Criterion – for your news – though I fear you may be overdoing yourself – I did not know that Grierson had married again, that is rather a shock.1 Idogs'Boerre' (Norwegian Elkhound);b7scourge of Northampton;b4 was much amused by the dog correspondence, and gather that Boerre is still inclined to imprudent and inconvenient bursts of activity, but by this time he, and consequently you, must be widely known for miles about Northampton. I suppose that this is a very busy month for you, with ‘mid-year examinations (?)’ and then starting a new half-course.
I was much moved by your postscript to your Christmas letter. You need have no regrets over having written that letter, my darling: I am sure that it was good for you to write it and for me to receive it. I am, as often, impressed by your saintly humility and considerate gentleness, which I emulate and hope to share, and I only wanted to be able to come at once and reassure you by spoken word and embrace.
ISt. Stephen's Church, Gloucester Roadvestry goings-on;a2 have not so much time left for writing this evening as I expected, after a long and animated – not to say heated – vestry meeting concerning the problem of accepting a sum of money to build a chapel; and I should not have left this letter until the last night before the boat sails, but on Wednesday evenings, after the weekly committee, I am always stupid from fatigue, andMcKnight Kauffers, thecelebrate JDH's birthday;a7 lastHayward, Johnat his birthday-party;j2 night I dined with the Kauffers who had asked John Hayward to dinner to celebrate his 35th birthday! ItHinks, Rogerat JDH's birthday-party;a5 was a quiet party – no one else except Roger Hinks: John seemed cheerful, as he had received many tokens and remembrances from friends. I think that on the whole he is happier in his new flat in Chelsea, though having his own housekeeper is not an unmixed blessing, and I feel no inclination to imitate him, though I think at times that I would like to take larger apartments for a single gentleman, with services. In any case, that must wait until my permanent financial liabilities are known, and until I know what income I may expect from future plays. (asFamily Reunion, Thepublication scheduled;f9 to that, I have finally decided to publish the play on March 30th: if Martin can arrange a production before that, good; if not, let us hope for a production in the autumn. IBrowne, Elliott Martin1939 production of The Family Reunion;c1TSE throws over Gielgud for;b6 think Martin has been doing his best, and will be bitterly disappointed if he does not succeed. He believes in the play, and of course its success would be a bigger thing for him than anything he has yet done. IDukes, Ashleyless persuaded by Family Reunion;f2 don’t think Ashley has really got the hang of it or believes that it could have any success).
IChamberlain, Nevillepost-Munich, in TSE's opinion;a5 shallBaldwin, Stanleyresponsibility for Munich;a5 writeMunich AgreementTSE on Chamberlain's conduct during;a3, in between boats, to reply to your comment on ‘Last Words’ – but meanwhile I hope that you do not take me as having protested against Chamberlain at Munich: that is [a] problem of expediency which I am not in a position to criticise; and I think that he behaved with a courage and resolution which must be respected, though I objected to his appearance on the newsreel afterwards: but the Chamberlains are socially inferior, and such behaviour is not surprising. WhatChristianitypolitics;c5the 'Dividend morality';a7 depressed me was the whole history that led up to Munich, and for which, for aught I know, Baldwin was more responsible than Chamberlain; andEnglandundone by 'Dividend morality';b5 the whole attitude of public men, the feebleness of all our parties, and the lack of any philosophy or spiritual motive, and generally what I call the Dividend morality which is devastating England. I hate to see this country decaying and deteriorating, and I am more than anxious about the future – irrespective of whether it is peace or war. But I know I must explain this at greater length. Anyway, I did not, like the light-headed left-wingers, denounce Munich; I was merely one of those who said ne nous félicitons pas. It is not only Munich or Chamberlain; it is The Times Literary Supplement that is an ill omen. DidOldham, Josephbewails mankind;c5 I not send you, at the time, Joe Oldham’s letter to the Times?2
Also'Liberal Manifesto: The Place of Reason in the Thought of the Church, A';a1 the Spens Group Manifesto to report on.3 A bad press.
But the chief point for this letter is to thank you for yours, and to surround you with my devotion and cherishment.
IYeats, William Butler ('W. B.')TSE wonders how to mourn;c1 am wondering whether, and if so where, I should make any public statement of tribute to Willie Yeats. That is the kind of occasion on which I miss the Criterion as a vehicle. He was buried at Roquebrune; if it had been Dublin, I would gladly have gone over for any public obsequies.4
1.OnGrierson, Sir Herbertremarries;a5n 7 Dec. 1938, Sir Herbert Grierson (1866–1960) – Rector of Edinburgh University – married Margaret Storrs (1900–97), who taught philosophy at Smith College until becoming college archivist in 1940; from 1942 she was executive secretary of the Friends of Smith College Library and founding director of the Sophia Smith Collection of Women’s History.
2.FollowingOldham, Josephbewails mankind;c5 on from the Munich Agreement, Oldham wrote a long letter to The Times, published on 5 Oct.: ‘The respite that has been given us may be no more than a postponement of the day of reckoning unless we are determined to root out the cancerous growths which have brought Western civilization to the brink of collapse. Whether truth and justice or caprice and violence are to prevail in human affairs is a question on which the fate of mankind depends. But to equate the conflict between these opposing forces with the conflict between democracies and dictatorships, real and profound as is the difference, is a dangerous simplification of the problem. To focus on evil in others is a way of escape from the painful struggle of eradicating it from our own hearts and lives and an evasion of our real responsibilities.’
Oldham concluded his letter with the conviction ‘that nothing short of a really heroic effort will avail to save mankind from its present evils and the destruction which must follow in their train.’
3.‘A Liberal Manifesto: The Place of Reason in the Thought of the Church’, Church Times, 20 Jan. 1939, 58: CProse 5, 769–74.
4.Yeats had died on 26 Jan. 1939; he was buried at Roquebrune, in south-east France near Monaco.
4.StanleyBaldwin, Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947), Conservative Party politician; Prime Minister, 1923–4; 1924–9; 1935–7.
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.
15.SirGrierson, Sir Herbert Herbert Grierson (1866–1960), Knight Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature at Edinburgh University, was elected Rector in 1936; knighted in 1936; celebrated for his edition of The Poems of John Donne (2 vols., 1912) and Metaphysical Lyrics and Poems of the Seventeenth Century (1921) – which TSE reviewed in the TLS, 21 Oct. 1921. TSE’s address was delivered on Fri. 29 Oct.
11.JohnHayward, John Davy Hayward (1905–65), editor and critic: see Biographical Register.
4.RogerHinks, Roger Hinks (1903–63), Assistant Keeper, 1926–39, in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, from which he resigned in consequence of a scandal caused by his arrangements for deep-cleaning the Elgin Marbles. He later worked at the Warburg Institute, at the British Legation in Stockholm (where he met TSE in 1942) and for the British Council (Rome, The Netherlands, Greece, Paris). His writings include Carolingian Art (1935) and Caravaggio: His Life – His Legend – His Works (1953). See also ‘Roger Hinks’, Burlington Magazine 105: 4738 (Sept. 1964), 423–34; and The Gymnasium of the Mind: The Journals of Roger Hinks, 1933–1963, ed. John Goldsmith (1984).
8.JosephOldham, Joseph (‘Joe’) Houldsworth Oldham (1874–1969), missionary, adviser, organiser: see Biographical Register.
4.W. B. YeatsYeats, William Butler ('W. B.') (1865–1939), Irish poet and playwright: see Biographical Register.