[41 Brimmer St., Boston]
I was disturbed to learn from your letter that you had been so ill, year before last, and should like to be reassured, if possible, from time to time about your health.
I was very happy to hear that the lecture had gone so well, and expect you to proceed from success to success.1 IHopkins, Gerard Manleyhis Poems sent to EH;a3 hope you have received both the Gerard Hopkins poems and the book about him,2 and should like to know what you think of the poems. They are a little difficult at first: I think the easiest and one of the loveliest is the one beginning ‘MargaretHopkins, Gerard Manley'Margaret, are you grieving?';a7, are you grieving?’ MyRichards, Ivor Armstrong ('I. A.')his admiration for Hopkins;a2 friend Ivor Richards is very keen on him;3 IUniversity of Cambridgeand I. A. Richards;a1 am waiting to hear from Richards that he has arrived in Cambridge, and shall then send him an introduction, among others, to the Hinkleys, and shall suggest to them that I would like you to meet them – hisRichards, Dorothy (née Pilley)TSE's fondness for;a1 wife is very nice, I think.4 He is a very great influence upon the undergraduates of Cambridge England.
Speaking of the Hinkleys, IHinkley, Eleanor Holmes (TSE's first cousin)White Violets;g6 was ashamed after mentioning Eleanor to you and wrote to her almost at once about her play.5 I had a long reply, very amiable indeed, explaining the play to me. I wish that I might feel closer to Eleanor, but I always feel what I dare say others have felt too: that it is difficult to be intimate with a whole family (I don’t care much for BarbaraHinkley, Barbara (TSE's first cousin)TSE's antipathy to;a1)6 and although IHinkley, Susan Heywood (TSE's aunt, née Stearns);a1 find Aunt Susie very charming, it is unsatisfactory to talk always to two persons at once; and sometimes I think (as when I saw her last) that Eleanor might have matured more if she had not had such a sheltered and harmonious domestic life. ButHinkleys, theduring TSE's student days;a1 IAmericaCambridge, Massachusetts;d4TSE's student days in;a1 owe them a very great deal; and it was due to their kindness that I got so much out of my life in Cambridge.
Of course, I know that you might have a great success on the stage; you have all the qualifications – including voice, which is most important, I believe MrsCampbell, Mrs Patrick (née Beatrice Tanner);a1. Campbell had nothing else, but never saw her7 – except cheek and insensitiveness. I have sometimes met actorsactors and actressesto be pitied;a1 socially, and enjoyed them: but I may be just oldfashioned, yet I do not like to think of anyone I care for having to make a career on the stage, and perhaps in musical comedy and so on; managers and directors must be unpleasant, and then there is so much spite and jealousy among actors.
I'Thoughts After Lambeth';a1 have almost finished my pamphlet.8 It was a great nuisance; IThomson, George Malcolm;a1 got a young Scotsman to write one, and it turned out to be rather offensive to some people – just a little cheap;9 it was felt that there ought to be a reply; and as no one else could be found to do it quickly, and I was responsible anyway, I had to do it myself. I feel rather unhappy about it; butTemple, William, Archbishop of York (later of Canterbury)consulted over 'Thoughts After Lambeth';a1 I am getting the Archbishop of York10 and the BishopBell, George, Bishop of Chichester (earlier Dean of Canterbury)to read 'Thoughts After Lambeth';a2 of Chichester to go through it, (two of the youngest and most intelligent of the bishops) and a few other people, so it may turn out all right, though not exactly an original composition. One is always getting into work that has to be done quickly, and never has time for any one long piece of work.
I have had a very bad photograph taken, of which I am sending copies only to my family; I felt diffident about sending you one. I had rather send a little old photograph of myself as a child, if I muster up courage.
But the real point of this letter is as follows. I cannot bear to be separated from your letters at present, not so much for need to refer to the contents, some of which I repeat to myself often during the day and night, but for the touch of the paper and sight of the writing. IFaber, Geoffreymade TSE's literary executor;a1 am making Geoffrey Faber11 my Literary Executor. I have given him a locked tin box containing various papers he will need, and a closed envelope marked ‘to be burnt at once’. ButHale, Emilycorrespondence with TSE;w3TSE petitions EH to bestow on the Bodleian;a1 whatBodleian Library, Oxfordintended repository for EH's letters;a1 I wish to do is to mark it ‘to be given to the Bodleian Library, not to be opened for 60 years’. That is quite a usual thing to do; and as for the Bodleian I have already given it some manuscripts through SirSadler, Sir Michaeldonations to Bodleian via;a1 Michael Sadler, the Master of University.12 I do not worry much about posthumous reputation; but whatever I have left by that time I want to share with you. Please, I am dearly attached to this notion; but I want your permission.
IAsh Wednesday;a2 enclose what is on the whole one of the most intelligent reviews of Ash Wednesday that I have had.13
1.EHHale, Emilyas teacher;w1EH lectures on 'Modern British Verse';a1n had given a lecture on ‘Modern British Verse’, in Boston. The Boston Evening Transcript, 14 Nov. 1930, reported this observation from the talk: ‘T. S. Eliot, F. S. Flint, the Sitwells, Wilfred Gibson and the late Gerard Hopkins are among the new school.’
2.Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, ed. Robert Bridges, 2nd edn, with additional poems and introduction by Charles Williams (1930); Gerald F. Lahey, Gerard Manley Hopkins (1930).
3.I. A. Richards featured Hopkins’s poem ‘Spring and Fall’ (‘Margaret are you grieving’) as poem 6 in Practical Criticism: A Study of Literary Judgment (1929).
4.Dorothy Richards, née Pilley (1894–1986), journalist and climber, worked as a reporter before marrying IAR in 1926: see Biographical Register.
5.EleanorHinkley, Eleanor Holmes (TSE's first cousin) Holmes Hinkley (1891–1971), playwright; TSE’s first cousin; daughter of Susan Heywood Stearns – TSE’s maternal aunt – and Holmes Hinkley: see Biographical Register.
The Hinkley play in question was ‘White Violets’, a murder mystery: see TSE to Hinkley, 14 Oct. 1930.
6.BarbaraHinkley, Barbara (TSE's first cousin) Hinkley (1889–1958) was married in July 1928 to Roger Wolcott (1877–1965), an attorney; they lived at 125 Beacon Hill, Boston, and at 1733 Canton Avenue, Milton, Mass.
7.MrsCampbell, Mrs Patrick (née Beatrice Tanner) Patrick Campbell, née Beatrice Tanner (1865–1940), English stage actor, famous for her performances in plays by Shakespeare, J. M. Barrie and Bernard Shaw (who adored her).
8.Thoughts After Lambeth (1931): see CProse 4, 223–50.
9.George Malcolm Thomson, The Lambeth Conference (Criterion Miscellany no. 23, 1930).
10.WilliamTemple, William, Archbishop of York (later of Canterbury) Temple (1881–1944), Anglican clergyman, Archbishop of York and later of Canterbury: see Biographical Register.
11.GeoffreyFaber, Geoffrey Faber (1889–1961), publisher and poet: see Biographical Register.
12.Sir Michael Sadler (1861–1943) – Master of University College, Oxford, 1923–34 – responded, 12 May 1930: ‘Please accept our grateful thanks for your gift … We are happy that The Friends will be able, through your kindness, to make this gift to the Bodleian.’ Sadler acknowledged the gift of the sheets of Marina on 18 Oct. 1930. (He was to acknowledge the gift of ‘the corrected typescript’ of Anabasis on 17 Jan. 1931.) TSE’s benefaction was noted in ‘The Friends of the Bodleian: Gifts to library this year’, The Times, 22 Oct. 1930, 13.
13.P. M. Jack, ‘Eliot the Poet’, New York Sun, 15 Nov. 1930.
4.RtBell, George, Bishop of Chichester (earlier Dean of Canterbury) Revd George Bell, DD (1883–1958), Bishop of Chichester, 1929–58: see Biographical Register.
7.MrsCampbell, Mrs Patrick (née Beatrice Tanner) Patrick Campbell, née Beatrice Tanner (1865–1940), English stage actor, famous for her performances in plays by Shakespeare, J. M. Barrie and Bernard Shaw (who adored her).
11.GeoffreyFaber, Geoffrey Faber (1889–1961), publisher and poet: see Biographical Register.
6.BarbaraHinkley, Barbara (TSE's first cousin) Hinkley (1889–1958) was married in July 1928 to Roger Wolcott (1877–1965), an attorney; they lived at 125 Beacon Hill, Boston, and at 1733 Canton Avenue, Milton, Mass.
5.EleanorHinkley, Eleanor Holmes (TSE's first cousin) Holmes Hinkley (1891–1971), playwright; TSE’s first cousin; daughter of Susan Heywood Stearns – TSE’s maternal aunt – and Holmes Hinkley: see Biographical Register.
4.I. A. RichardsRichards, Ivor Armstrong ('I. A.') (1893–1979), theorist of literature, education and communication studies: see Biographical Register.
10.WilliamTemple, William, Archbishop of York (later of Canterbury) Temple (1881–1944), Anglican clergyman, Archbishop of York and later of Canterbury: see Biographical Register.