[22 Paradise Rd., Northampton, Mass.]
I thought that I might have had a letter from you by now, but nothing has come since that of the 18th on the Washington. MyDukes, Ashleyfields Orson Welles enquiry;f6 cableWelles, Orsonand Family Reunion;a1 ofFamily Reunion, Theand Orson Welles;g9 enquiry was occasioned by a telephone call from Ashley Dukes, whoHouseman, John;a1 had received a cable of enquiry about the play from one John Housman [sc. Houseman], who he says is a young Englishman who is working with Orson Wells [sc. Welles].1 Ashley has written to his agent in New York (Madden) to tell him to get in touch with Housman and Wells and find out what they want to do. MartinBrowne, Elliott Martinand possible Orson Welles interest;c9, who rang me up this morning, thinks very well of these men; and if they propose anything that sounds respectable, for the autumn, would like to go over and take a hand in it. (By the way, Henzie has been in very poor health, since having influenza before the Reunion began, and he says she has had a slight relapse. Her heart seems to be affected). I wanted to ask your opinion in time to get it before Dukes hears from New York; but I trust I made it clear that there was no need for you to cable – a letter will be in ample time. ApparentlyFamily Reunion, TheAmerican reception;g8 the New York edition has been selling very well; the notices have been good; and if one could be sure of as intelligent a production as New York can give, it might be as well to take advantage of the present interest.
ItJanes, W. L.TSE on his death and funeral;b8 is odd that in each of my last letters I should have forgotten to mention the death of Janes. I saw him, you remember, on Easter Day, and thought he looked much weaker and a bad colour. TheMoot, The;a7 next Sunday I had to be at my Moot at Jordan’s, so did not visit him again; and on the Friday that I went to the Morleys’, I got a letter from his son saying that he had died the day before. I managed to order a wreath before I left, and came up on Monday for the funeral (going back to Lingfield the same afternoon). There was no one else at Brompton Cemetary [sic] except Fred and Frances, his son and daughter in law: I thought that the two granddaughters in Gillingham, and certainly the third granddaughter in Clapham, might have come. Mrs. Webster was not well enough – the day was raw and cold and wet – but I have heard from her since; andJanes, Adaher engagement ring;a3 sheMrs Webster (Ada Janes's sister)gives TSE sister's engagement ring;a4 has embarrassed me by sending me his sister’s (the late Mrs. Janes, Ada) engagement ring, which it was Janes’s wish that I should have as a memento. I had hoped that Mrs. Webster would be willing to keep it: it can be of no interest to his son or grand-daughters, because they come from his first wife – Ada had no children. It is large and showy and I shall just have to store it away. I shall miss him; he was a faithful friend, a most diverting talker, and a link with the past, having had his ears boxed by Disraeli when he was a choir boy at Hughenden. And it seems odd after five months not to pay the weekly visit to the hospital in Fulham.
AndOxford and Cambridge Clubchanging of guard at;c3 now my two favourite waiters at the club are retiring or rather the Head Carver who has always been so careful about my beef, andcheeseTSE's cheese-counsellor;b1 the oldest waiter – the latter has been there ever since 1889, and always advised me about the best cheese for the day.
ThisSociety of Retreat Conductors, Queen's GateTSE makes retreat with;a1 weekend I spend in retreat in Queen’s Gate (the Society of Retreat Conductors): myMaritain, Jacquesdinner for;b8 first retreat for two years. The chief event next week is a dinner I am giving for Jacques Maritain to meet some men, after he has been lecturing at Oxford. His wife is not coming with him. The weather is slowly getting a little warmer again, but not warm enough yet for spring clothes: I dare say it will turn very warm suddenly. The weather has been too bad for anyone to want to take a holiday yet.
AThorp, Willardcongratulates TSE on Family Reunion;b6 nice letter from Willard Thorp, à propos the Reunion which they had been reading.2
ISeaverns, Helen;c7 hearPerkinses, the;i6 from Mrs. Seaverns (who has just returned from Hove) that the Perkins’s intend to sail on the 20th. Theretravels, trips and plansEH's 1939 England visit;d5complicated by Marion's arrival;a3 is not much time now, so we ought to be planning the summer. EspeciallyEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister)1939 summer in England with Dodo;d3;a4 because of the complication of Marion: it seems probable that they will come – arriving, inconveniently enough, a few days before you can. I am rather at a loss to know what to do with them for two months. They will at least return before you have to. I think that if I go with them for ten days or a fortnight to some quiet country place, and find somewhere else for them to go for part of the time by themselves, and have them in London for part of the time, that will be quite enough; and all the usual trimmings of weekends there, and your occasional visits to town. In short, I do not mean to see any the less of you, you may be sure; but it will need careful dove-tailing.
Well, my dearest, I hope that I may get something from you before Friday night.
1.JohnHouseman, John Houseman – born Jacques Haussmann (1902–88) – celebrated Romanian-born actor, director and producer; educated at Clifton College in England, he won plaudits for his long association with Orson Welles, beginning with productions for the Federal Theatre Project in the 1930s, and culminating in the writing and production of the movie Citizen Kane (1941).
2.WillardsmokingFrench cigarettes;b7n ThorpThorp, Willardcongratulates TSE on Family Reunion;b6 to TSE, 24 Apr. 1939: ‘We have been reading The Family Reunion and talking about it. The sales at the university store ought to keep you in French cigarettes for a long time! I am impressed with the way you can make the verse do anything you want it to do, passing without a jolt from satire to the deeper passages. Emily has written us about the London performance. Is there any chance that it will be done here soon?’ (EVE).
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.
1.Marian/MarionEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister) Cushing Eliot (1877–1964), fourth child of Henry Ware Eliot and Charlotte Eliot: see Biographical Register.
1.JohnHouseman, John Houseman – born Jacques Haussmann (1902–88) – celebrated Romanian-born actor, director and producer; educated at Clifton College in England, he won plaudits for his long association with Orson Welles, beginning with productions for the Federal Theatre Project in the 1930s, and culminating in the writing and production of the movie Citizen Kane (1941).
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.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).
5.JacquesMaritain, Jacques Maritain (1882–1973), philosopher and littérateur, was at first a disciple of Bergson, but revoked that allegiance (L’Evolutionnisme de M. Bergson, 1911; La Philosophie bergsonienne, 1914) and became a Roman Catholic and foremost exponent of Neo-Thomism. For a while in the 1920s he was associated with Action Française, but the connection ended in 1926. Works include Art et scolastique (1920); Saint Thomas d’Aquin apôtre des temps modernes (1923); Réflexions sur l’intelligence (1924); Trois Réformateurs (1925); Primauté du spirituel (1927), Humanisme intégral (1936), Scholasticism and Politics (1940), Creative Intuition in Art and Poetry (1953). TSE told Ranjee Shahani (John O’London’s Weekly, 19 Aug. 1949, 497–8) that Maritain ‘filled an important role in our generation by uniting philosophy and theology, and also by enlarging the circle of readers who regard Christian philosophy seriously’. See Walter Raubicheck, ‘Jacques Maritain, T. S. Eliot, and the Romantics’, Renascence 46:1 (Fall 1993), 71–9; Shun’ichi Takayanagi, ‘T. S. Eliot, Jacques Maritain, and Neo-Thomism’, The Modern Schoolman 73: 1 (Nov. 1995), 71–90; Jason Harding, ‘“The Just Impartiality of a Christian Philosopher”: Jacques Maritain and T. S. Eliot’, in The Maritain Factor: Taking Religion into Interwar Modernism, ed. J. Heynickx and J. De Maeyer (Leuven, 2010), 180–91; James Matthew Wilson, ‘“I bought and praised but did not read Aquinas”: T. S. Eliot, Jacques Maritain, and the Ontology of the Sign’, Yeats Eliot Review 27: 1–2 (Spring–Summer 2010), 21; and Carter Wood, This Is Your Hour: Christian Intellectuals in Britain and the Crisis of Europe, 1937–40 (Manchester, 2019), 69–72.
3.HelenSeaverns, Helen Seaverns, widow of the American-born businessman and Liberal MP, Joel Herbert Seaverns: see Biographical Register.
1.Margaret Thorp, née Farrand (1891–1970), contemporary and close friend of EH; noted author and biographer. WillardThorp, Willard Thorp (1899–1990) was a Professor of English at Princeton University. See Biographical Register. See further Lyndall Gordon, Hyacinth Girl, 126–8, 158–9.