[22 Paradise Rd., Northampton, Mass.]
17
Dearest,
Your letter no. 13 of November 12 arrived yesterday, togetherMorley, Frank Vigor;j3 with one from Frank Morley of the same date, both by Air Mail, and it is agreeable to have news in it of what you are doing to-day, which is Thanksgiving Day in Massachusetts. I am astonished to hear that I wrote a note without a heading or signature, but I remember its happening once before. What is also odd is to find that I did not enter last week’s letter in my diary (I have ordered the new diary, by the way) but this letter must be no. 17. IEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister);d6 hadEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother)undergoes serious operation;e7 a letter from Marion a few days ago, by ordinary mail, dated Nov. 8th, telling of Henry’s operation which had just taken place. It was apparently quite successful, but – I expect that this is quite confidential – the surgeon had to work very fast over it as Henry developed symptoms of heart weakness under anaesthetic. SoEliot, Theresa Garrett (TSE's sister-in-law);a8 I am still very anxious; I presume you will be in touch with Theresa again after the strain is over, if everything turns out satisfactorily. It has evidently been a very serious affair indeed.
ItHale, Irene (née Baumgras)in Northampton;c3 would seem that pleasant social surroundings, and apparently also being liked, has been beneficial to Aunt Irene. A certain amount of the right kind of flattery is good for everyone.
ITandy, Geoffreyhis conversation missed;c6 had my quiet weekend at home, but Tandy with me for lunch and tea on Sunday, as he was just leaving for a billet unknown – I think he is enjoying his naval work.1 IndeedSecond World Warits effect on TSE;b3, it is some of those whose lives have been most altered who find conditions most endurable, I think: to be very busy, to have one’s life strictly regulated, to have a definite but limited initiative, and not to have the time or energy to think except along lines laid down for them: all this is a kind of insulation. The strain is greater for us older folk who have to try on the one hand to carry on our normal occupations, and on the other to think about things in general; and still more, I believe, for young men who think and have not yet been assigned their places in the machine. I miss very much the absence of any opportunity to talk to you about things; not only about the events from day to day, and the development of affairs in the narrower sense, but about the future of the world in general. Iwritingthe effect of war on;c7 have not, I confess, felt the slightest inspiration towards a play or a poem: how far that is a kind of laziness against which I should fight, how far due to the pressure of circumstances (I find others in the same mind, but one cannot go by that altogether) and how far just the normal period of replenishment that is required, is very hard to determine. There is also a kind of waiting, and a suspicion that any piece of work might be interrupted by the occasion to think and write on some matter of immediate public concern. ThereStreit, Clarence K.;a1 may be, for instance, the need for some careful group thinking and expression about these half-baked schemes of Federation of which an American named Streit seems to be the fugleman.2 BetweenMoot, Theno substitute for individual friendships;a9 theChristian News-Letter (CNL)TSE's colleagues not quite friends;a8 intellectualNew English Weekly;b3 intimates whom one seems [sc. sees] constantly for special purposes – like the Moot and News Letter group, and the N.E.W. group – and general acquaintance on the other, I missMorley, Frank Vigorhis conversation missed;j4 eachHayward, Johnhis conversation missed;j8 of the few individuals – like Morley, and Hayward and Tandy – with whom I can have an intelligent conversation with no particular aim in view. All conversation tends to be divided into the specialised and the futile at a time like this.
IHale, Emilyas actor;v8Cambridge Dramatic club reunion;c5 am grateful for all your items of news about yourself. IJones, Pauline;a1 shouldSibley, Emily;a1 haveHall, Amy Gozzaldi;a5 likedHall, Richard ('Dick') Walworth;a3 to witness the Cambridge Dramatic Re-union: the programme card you sent evoked shades from the past like Pauline Jones3 and Emily Sibley,4 and apparently Dick Hall and I presume Amy are still active. But my reasons for wishing for a flying carpet are very different from such as that!
YesAmericaNew York (N.Y.C.);g1TSE encouraged to write play for;a3, I like your idea of a play which could be produced directly in New York – andCornell, Katharine;a1 I will try to keep in mind that a first consideration should be to provide a party [sc. part] worthy of Katherine Cornell,5 though I have never seen her. I am interested to hear that she can take verse. If you will tell me of any collection of plays, or even the names of good playwrights, I may be able to get some of them here. Apparently, however, single books come through easily enough, though slowly – the ends of the parcel should be open – but I am having a fantastic correspondence with the Board of Trade about a parcel of the American edition of Practical Cats which has arrived at the Postal Customs – I may send you copies of some of it later. Anyway, please go on encouraging me to do something – you will probably scold me for having to make such a poor report of myself. (TheHayes, Helendistinct from Helen Haye;a1 name of ‘Helen Hayes’6 sounds odd, becauseHaye, Helenas Amy;a1 you know I had a ‘Helen Haye’ as Amy, and very good she was too[)].
1.TSETandy, Geoffreyhis war work;c7n to Hayward, 27 Sept. 1939 : ‘G. Tandy is now a Sub-Lieut. in the Navy, and spends his days at the Admiralty (40 feet under ground) and his nights in some obscure bouge [‘hole’] at Earl’s Court. He has trimmed his beard to look like that of some Vice-Admiral.’ (Letters 9, 279–80)
2.ClarenceStreit, Clarence K. K. Streit, Union Now: A Proposal for a Federal Union of The Leading Democracies (1939).
3.PaulineJones, Pauline Jones, with her sister Lily, taught dancing and was involved in the theatre in Cambridge, Mass.
4.EmilySibley, Emily Sibley (b. 1888), who was born in Cambridge, Mass., and educated at Radcliffe College and Simmons College, taught home economics at the Choate School, Brookline, Mass., 1920–50. She was an active member of the First Parish Unitarian Church, Cambridge.
5.KatharineCornell, Katharine Cornell (1893–1974), distinguished American stage actor, writer and producer.
6.HelenHayes, Helen Hayes (1900–93), acclaimed American actor.
5.KatharineCornell, Katharine Cornell (1893–1974), distinguished American stage actor, writer and producer.
3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: 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.
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.
2.RichardHall, Richard ('Dick') Walworth Walworth Hall (1889–1966), who graduated from Harvard in 1910 and gained his LL.B from Boston University in 1913, was a lawyer. He shared TSE’s passion for small boat sailing. Hall and hisHall, Amy Gozzaldi wife Amy Gozzaldi Hall (d. 1981) lived at 11 Hawthorn Street, Cambridge, Mass. Both of them greatly enjoyed amateur dramatics: see Richard W. Hall, ‘Recollections of the Cambridge Social Dramatic Club’, The Proceedings of the Cambridge Historical Society 38 (1959–60), 51–66. InHall, Amy Gozzaldiplaying opposite TSE in 1912–13;a2n 1912–13Cummings, Edward Estlin ('E. E.')Second Footman to TSE's Lord Bantock;a1n, Amy had played the part of Fanny – new wife to TSE’s Lord Bantock (of Bantock Hall, Rutlandshire) – in the Cambridge Social Dramatic Club production of Jerome K. Jerome’s The New Lady Bantock or Fanny and the Servant Problem (1909): see letter to Eleanor Hinkley, 3 Jan. 1915. The Second Footman in that production had been played by E. E. Cummings (1894–1962), poet, novelist, playwright and artist.
2.RichardHall, Richard ('Dick') Walworth Walworth Hall (1889–1966), who graduated from Harvard in 1910 and gained his LL.B from Boston University in 1913, was a lawyer. He shared TSE’s passion for small boat sailing. Hall and hisHall, Amy Gozzaldi wife Amy Gozzaldi Hall (d. 1981) lived at 11 Hawthorn Street, Cambridge, Mass. Both of them greatly enjoyed amateur dramatics: see Richard W. Hall, ‘Recollections of the Cambridge Social Dramatic Club’, The Proceedings of the Cambridge Historical Society 38 (1959–60), 51–66. InHall, Amy Gozzaldiplaying opposite TSE in 1912–13;a2n 1912–13Cummings, Edward Estlin ('E. E.')Second Footman to TSE's Lord Bantock;a1n, Amy had played the part of Fanny – new wife to TSE’s Lord Bantock (of Bantock Hall, Rutlandshire) – in the Cambridge Social Dramatic Club production of Jerome K. Jerome’s The New Lady Bantock or Fanny and the Servant Problem (1909): see letter to Eleanor Hinkley, 3 Jan. 1915. The Second Footman in that production had been played by E. E. Cummings (1894–1962), poet, novelist, playwright and artist.
2.HelenHaye, Helen Haye (1874–1957), stage and film actor. (She was to play the Duchess of York in Laurence Olivier’s film production of Richard III.)
6.HelenHayes, Helen Hayes (1900–93), acclaimed American actor.
11.JohnHayward, John Davy Hayward (1905–65), editor and critic: see Biographical Register.
3.PaulineJones, Pauline Jones, with her sister Lily, taught dancing and was involved in the theatre in Cambridge, Mass.
4.FrankMorley, Frank Vigor Vigor Morley (1899–1980), American publisher and author; a founding editor of F&F, 1929–39: see Biographical Register.
4.EmilySibley, Emily Sibley (b. 1888), who was born in Cambridge, Mass., and educated at Radcliffe College and Simmons College, taught home economics at the Choate School, Brookline, Mass., 1920–50. She was an active member of the First Parish Unitarian Church, Cambridge.
2.ClarenceStreit, Clarence K. K. Streit, Union Now: A Proposal for a Federal Union of The Leading Democracies (1939).
2.GeoffreyTandy, Geoffrey Tandy (1900–69), marine biologist; Assistant Keeper of Botany at the Natural History Museum, London, 1926–47; did broadcast readings for the BBC (including the first reading of TSE’s Practical Cats on Christmas Day 1937): see Biographical Register.