[22 Paradise Rd., Northampton, Mass.]

T. S.Eliot
EmilyHale
TS
Letter 28.
15 February 1940
My dearest,

My last letter I sent by ordinary mail, and as your letter No. 23 of the 26th January has just arrived, we do not seem to be getting our money’s worth for the air mail stamp. How far the delays are due to the weather is impossible to guess; perhaps the service will improve in the spring; but I dare say that there are considerable delays between Lisbon and London. However, as I bought my air mail stamps for this letter, I suppose that I might as well use them.

My health continues to improve, and my chest feels quite well again. I am to go on with the pills for blood pressure for about another week. Meanwhilewinterskating on Serpentine possible;a6 the weather continues very severe, as according to what you say it is with you also, though not so different from a normal American winter, and I like to think of your taking up skating again. If I had known how long the cold would continue, I think I might have bought a pair of skates myself, and tried my limbs on the Serpentine; but I have not put on a pair of skates since Cambridge Skating Club days. IWoolfs, theon their return from Sussex, host TSE;e3 saw the Woolfs last night, who were up for the first time since Christmas – at one time they were snow-bound in Sussex for several days, with no electricity or telephone, and they told me that they had been having wild geese settling in the garden, driven down from the north.1 Our plumbing has kept going, though Elizabeth had one morning of excitement as the bath water would not run out till noon.

TheBrowne, Elliott Martinwar work with Pilgrim Players;d3 Brownes have been in town for a week, givingBridie, JamesTobias and the Angel;a3 performancesLawrence, David Herbert ('D. H.')David;b1 of ‘Tobias’ 2 and ‘David’ at the rooms of the Drama League in Fitzroy Square, and I went on Saturday afternoon to ‘David’. The stage was small and the room cramped, but I thought the production very creditable. Lawrence’sBarrie, Sir James Matthew ('J. M.');a6 (not Barrie’s) ‘David’ – they had to cut it drastically to make it playable – is quite an interesting piece of work, rather a narrative than a plot, as in the end it just stops, but the separate scenes are good, andCasson, Annand the Pilgrim Players;a1 give opportunity for some good acting by Anne [sc. Ann] Casson, who was certainly the star of the troupe3 – I am sorry to say that she is being replaced, as she has got some film work. After all, the Pilgrim Players only get 30 shillings a week, poor things; and the venture sorely needs a subsidy. The sort of villages where they play cannot pay much for performances. IBrownes, the Martinand their Pilgrim Players;c1 wish I knew what could be done to help them; because apparently there is plenty of demand for this sort of work, and it might be developed to cover much more of England, if they could form more companies. Martin has been overworking, and Henzie still has to be careful of her heart; and in the sort of weather we have had, the life is one of considerable hardship. Indeed, when I asked them to lunch with me on Monday, only Henzie turned up; Martin had taken to bed (in the Regent Palace Hotel!) with a touch of laryngitis – he was not playing this week. So I went in to see him at the end of the afternoon.

IncidentallyDukes, Ashleywhich he mounts without consulting TSE;f9, heMurder in the Cathedral1940 Latham Mercury revival;f8ambushes TSE;a3 toldLatham, Stuartreplaces Browne in Murder revival;a1 me that AshleyMercury Theatre, Londonnew Murder revival at;c3 Dukes was preparing for a revival of ‘Murder’ at the Mercury, to be produced by a young man named Latham4 (as Martin can’t do it) with the original costumes, and apparently no speech professional to train the chorus. They assumed that I knew all about it. I was very much annoyed, and have written sharply to Ashley to ask what he means by starting anything of the sort without consulting or informing me. I think that a wholly new production, with new costumes – or else modern dress – might be worth doing; but I see no point just now in a revival which will be only a shabby shadow of Martin’s version; and I should not expect it to flourish.5

IChristian News-Letter (CNL);b4 am glad that you liked Farmer’s paper in the C.N.L. I thought it very good, myself; DorothySayers, Dorothy L.her Christian News-Letter contributions;a5 Sayers I do not care so much for, but she does captivate the popular audience.6 SinceVickers, Geoffrey;a1 then, the paper by Vickers on education7 (which had not yet reached you) distressed me, and it seemed to have no special pertinence to a Christian newsletter (Vickers is a Buddhist anyway, or calls himself that); andDemant, Revd Vigo Augustesound on H. G. Wells;b1 atWells, Herbert George ('H. G.')The New World Order;a4 the moment I am worried for fear they will not use an admirable paper by Demant on H. G. Wells’s Rights of Man.8 WeMannheim, Karland CNL;a2 haveLöwe, Adolfin relation to CNL;a2 a couple of Jewish refugee professors 9 on the board, and though they are both very nice men, and indeed brilliant minds, their outlook is very different from that of the more constructive Christian minds we have.

AtMirrlees, Emily Lina ('Mappie', née Moncrieff);a4 this moment my secretary has just rung up to say there is a message that Mrs. Mirrlees has influenza and can’t have me for the weekend. Well I am sorry she is ill, and I am very fond of the old lady (toMirrlees, Hopeher mother preferable;b5 tell the truth, I like her better than Hope) but I am rather glad not to have to go to the country in this weather, although they make one very comfortable. AndEast CokerTSE on writing;a6 I can get on with a poem I am trying to write. AlsoRidler, Anne (née Bradby);b1, I have arrears of correspondence, as Miss Bradby herself was away ill until yesterday.

I am glad to think that your marking of papers is ended; I can realise how exhausting you find it – I don’t suppose most professors worry themselves over it as you do. MissDunn, Esther Cloudman;a1 Dunne 10 sounds like a wise adviser: I don’t believe one gets on in a large college (especiallyNeilson, William Allanas President of Smith;a5 with a new President, who will not have got things taped as Neilson had) unless you push yourself – an art, my dear, for which I do not think you have ever shown much natural aptitude. You have an indomitable will and a strong personality, and I know you could push anyone or anything that you believed in, – except yourself: a combination of conscience, pride and refinement is I believe the formula that stands in your light!

I shall now be able to write again at the weekend.

Your loving
Tom

1.Virginia Woolf's diary, 16 Feb.: 267–8: ‘DinnerWoolf, Virginiaon wartime dinner with TSE;d2n party: Tom & Saxon [Sydney Turner]: Clive [Bell] in afterwards. […] Tom’s great yellow bronze mask all draped upon an iron framework. An inhibited, nerve drawn; dropped face – as if hung on a scaffold of heavy private brooding; & thought. A very serious face. & broken by the flicker of relief, when other people interrupt […] Tom talked about Stephen’s diary. Pages of S’s conversation “for I cant remember what T.S.E. said” – were sent to T.S.E. He’s benevolent & tolerant of the young. Oh & Yeats. Tom said Turner had made up to Yeats; who was an ill read man … A good deal of cold weather talk – Tom’s landlady providing one jug of water, & Tom bathing at Fabers. OhWaterlow, Sydneydiscussed with Virginia Woolf;a5n & Sydney Waterlow. “I never knew them (S. & Dawks [Sir Sydney Waterlow and his wife Margery]) in the moment of estasy [sic]” – Tom said with his sly smile. & I thought the same of Tom & Vivienne.’ (Diary 5)

See Spender to TSE, 12 Feb.: ‘Can I publish in Horizon 4, the enclosed reportage in my Journal of a lunch with you, when we discussed poetry. The red marks are cuts suggested by Cyril. Would you like any more to be made, or can you suggest emendations? Could you return this & let me know fairly soon? I enclose a copy of Horizon 3 with the previous extract from the Journal, so that you may see how it follows on. I shall cut out all the purely personal references.’

SpenderSpender, Stephendescribes club lunch with TSE;b6n, ‘September Journal’, Horizon, 1: 5 (May 1940), 356–9: ‘I had lunch with Eliot a few days ago at the club. The stupid thing is that I can hardly remember anything of what we said. I remember that we had cheese, which he chose. We each had a half of draught beer, so we were very abstemious. He smoked his French cigarettes. He was very gentle and courteous, as he always is, and more than that he talked with a great deal of freedom, was not at all “the great man”. At lunch I said that it might be a good thing to start a new magazine now. He agreed, but asked whether I thought we could get any subscribers. I said, not till January, I suppose. He asked me what I was doing, and I said, I think, writing my posthumous works, and that I wasn’t taking an official job. Hewritingthe effect of war on;c7 said, “I think it’s very important that as many writers as possible should remain detached and not have any official position.” I mentioned that I had sent in my name to the Ministry of Information and the War Office, but had had no reply. He had done ditto to the Foreign Office and had also had no reply.

‘HeOld Possum’s Book of Practical CatsTSE to design cover;c5 said he had designed a cover for his children’s book about cats. “I don’t know whether it’s altogether successful. I find that in drawing it seems purely a matter of chance whether I get the expression I want on a cat face or not. So I have to make a great many drawings, and hope that sooner or later I’ll strike in the expression I want.”

‘About writing, he said that it was very important that one should, at all costs, go on writing now. “It doesn’t seem to me to matter very much whether one isn’t able to do anything very good. The important thing is to keep going. Probably it’s impossible to do excellent work while things are so disturbed.”’ (Journals 1939–1984, ed. John Goldsmith [F&F, 1985], 44–5.)

TSEcheesePort Salut;b2n to Spender, 15 Feb. 1940: ‘I have read your tss. and don’t see anything that I can possibly object to personally. You rather imply that it was something of an exception for me not to play the “great man”, but if that’s what you mean, it’s O.K. with me. The one thing I question is the advisability of letting the public know that we ate Port Salut, unless you go into the matter more fully and tell why. It is a good, reliable, transportable second-rate cheese, but there are only two reasons for eating it: (1) that one is feeling rather low spirited (2) that there is nothing better. I think that the reason must have been that at that moment none of the important cheeses had come in – the cheese season had not really begun. Indeed, the only cheese that has justified itself this winter is the Old Cheshire: the Wensleydale has been very poor and unripe, and the Cottenham seems to have disappeared. So, to return to the point, unless you expand this passage to a paragraph on cheese, I think it better to cut out the “Port Salut” and say simply “cheese”.’

2.Tobias and the Angel (1930), by James Bridie (1888–1951).

3.AnnCasson, Ann Casson (1915–90), actor; daughter of Sir Lewis Casson and Dame Sybil Thorndike.

4.StuartLatham, Stuart Latham (1912–93), stage and film actor; director; later a TV producer (in 1960 he was to be the first producer of Coronation Street, episodes 1–60).

5.FirstMurder in the Cathedral1935 Canterbury Festival production;d7;a6n performed at the Chapter House of Canterbury Cathedral in June 1935, MurderMurder in the Cathedral1935–6 Mercury Theatre revival;d8;a9n in the Cathedral had subsequently enjoyed a 36-week run at the Mercury Theatre, London, 1935–6; 21Murder in the Cathedral1937 Duchess Theatre West End transfer;e8 weeks at the Duchess Theatre, London, 1936–7; fourMurder in the Cathedral1937 Old Vic production;f3;a3n weeks at the Old Vic in 1937; eightMurder in the Cathedral1938 American tour;f6 weeks in Boston, Massachusetts, and New York, 1938; andMurder in the Cathedral1937 touring production;e9 three more British tours. ItMurder in the Cathedral1940 Latham Mercury revival;f8;a4n was returning to the Mercury in Latham’s production, after more than 1,000 professional performances.

AnMurder in the Cathedral1940 Latham Mercury revival;f8reviewed;a7n (unidentified) cutting, signed ‘H.H’, that TSE posted to EH at a later date, reads in full: ‘This searching tragedy has responded nobly to fresh treatment. Mr Stuart Latham’s production is simple but strong, and the Mercury Players serve him well. The Chorus of Canterbury Women have an integral repose, and their beautifully spoken fears and forebodings waken no echoes from the elocutionary studio. Robert Sansom’s Becket, the centre of interest and the sustaining fount of the action, is admirable in voice and spirit, convincing in authority and a most excellent preacher, He carries the drama well. The whole company, indeed, not excepting the four equivocal murderers, interpret Mr Eliot with a dignity and devotion that should ensure for the play another run as popular and prolonged as it has already enjoyed.’

6.Herbert H. Farmer, ‘Can the feelings be changed?’ Christian News-Letter supplement 7 (13 Dec. 1939), n.p.; Dorothy L. Sayers, ‘Is this he that should come’, Christian News-Letter supplement 8 (20 Dec. 1939), n.p.

7.Geoffrey Vickers, ‘Educating for a Free Society’, Christian News-Letter, 31 Jan. 1940, 1–7.

8.Demant’s 2,000-word paper ‘Christian Faith and the Rights of Man’ (MOO/19) was discussed at length at the seventh meeting of the Moot, held at Old Jordans Hostel, Beaconsfield, 9–12 Feb. 1940 – from which TSE was absent. Moot Papers, 250–1, 272–88.

9.Karl Mannheim and Adolf Löwe.

10.EstherDunn, Esther Cloudman Cloudman Dunn (1891–1977), Professor of English, Smith College, 1923–59; works include The Literature of Shakespeare’s England (1936); Shakespeare in America (1939).

Barrie, Sir James Matthew ('J. M.'), attends Whibley memorial lecture, and Whibley, and the original Peter Pan, described for EH, EH in play by, likened to John Buchan, his estate, Dear Brutus, Peter Pan, The Admirable Crichton, The Old Lady Shows Her Medals,

5.SirBarrie, Sir James Matthew ('J. M.') James Barrie, Bt, OM (1860–1937), Scottish novelist and dramatist; world-renowned for Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up (1904).

Bridie, James, writes Pilgrim Players two plays, Tobias and the Angel,

2.JamesBridie, James Bridie (1888–1951) – pen name of Dr O. H. Mavor – physician and playwright.

Browne, Elliott Martin, meets TSE at Chichester, production of The Rock, meets TSE over possible collaboration, talks over outline of play, meets TSE with Martin Shaw, delighted with Rock choruses, discusses unwritten pageant scenes with TSE, predicament as The Rock's director, well connected in amateur circles, revising into the night with TSE, argues with Shaw at dress-rehearsal, presented to Prince Arthur, honoured by Rock cast-supper, producing Gordon Bottomley's play, speaks at Londonderry House with TSE, 1935 Canterbury Murder in the Cathedral, approached by TSE to 'produce', consulted throughout composition, goes silent, lunches with TSE and Speaight, directs and acts despite illness, pursues London Murder revival, 1935–6 Mercury Theatre Murder revival, engaged as producer by Dukes, keen that EH attend rehearsals, simultaneously part of BBC production, agrees about Speaight's decline, preferred as producer for TSE's next play, and Charles Williams's Cranmer, in which he plays 'the Skeleton', and TSE attend Tenebrae, taken to Cambridge after-feast, producing York Nativity Play, which TSE thinks Giottoesque, at Savile Club Murder dinner, producing Shakespeare's Dream, and Ascent of F6, and Tewkesbury Festival Murder confusion, 1939 production of The Family Reunion, due to be sent script, weighing TSE's proposal that he produce, enthused by script, suggests TSE see Mourning Becomes Electra, against Family Reunion as title, pleased with draft, quizzed on fire-safety, typescript prepared for, new draft submitted to, rewrite waits on, receives new draft, criticisms thereof, reports John Gielgud interest, mediates between Gielgud and TSE, TSE throws over Gielgud for, secures Westminster Theatre production, steps into company breach, then into still-greater breach, and the play's weaknesses, direction of Family Reunion, receives TSE's Shakespeare lectures, 1938 American Murder tour, re-rehearsing actors for, suffers fit of pre-tour gloom, yet to report from Boston, and Tewkesbury pageant, accompanies TSE to La Mandragola, on Family Reunion's future prospects, and possible Orson Welles interest, war leaves at loose end, advises TSE over next play, war work with Pilgrim Players, unavailable for modern-dress Murder, compared to tempter/knight successor, requests Pilgrim Players' play from TSE, New Plays by Poets series, as director, and This Way to the Tomb, and Family Reunion revival, urges TSE to concentrate on theatre, 1946 Mercury Family Reunion revival, in rehearsal, possible revue for Mercury Theatre, and The Lady's Not for Burning, Chairman of the Drama League, 1949 Edinburgh Cocktail Party, to produce, TSE's intended first reader for, receives beginning, approves first act, receives TSE's revisions, communciates Alec Guinness's enthusiasm, arranges reading, surpasses himself with production, in Florence, EH suggests moving on from, and the Poets' Theatre Guild, 1950 Cocktail Party New York transfer, compares Rex Harrison and Alec Guinness, TSE debates whether to continue collaboration with, suggests three-play TSE repertory, 1953 Edinburgh Confidential Clerk, receives first two acts, designing sets, 1953 Lyric Theatre Confidential Clerk, attends with TSE, 1954 American Confidential Clerk, 1954 touring Confidential Clerk, TSE and Martin Browne catch in Golders Green, seeks Family Reunion MS from EH,
see also Brownes, the Martin

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.

Brownes, the Martin, at TSE's theatrical tea-party, pick over scenario for Murder, TSE's fondness for, introduce TSE to Saint-Denis, both invited to Tenebrae, TSE reads Family Reunion to, and their Pilgrim Players, their sons, among TSE's intimates, encourage TSE over Cocktail Party, discuss Cocktail Party draft, Silver Wedding Party,
Casson, Ann, and the Pilgrim Players,

3.AnnCasson, Ann Casson (1915–90), actor; daughter of Sir Lewis Casson and Dame Sybil Thorndike.

cheese, chocolate-coloured at Norske Klub, Old Cheshire, which TSE compares to Double Gloucester and Leicester, Wensleydale 'Prince Consort' to 'Queen' Cheshire, cold-curing, smell-restoring Limburger, brie at Prunier's, cheese-eating ruined by perfume, discussed with Hoskyns, TSE's first Old Blue Cottenham, TSE's cheese-counsellor, Port Salut, letter to Times on Stilton, and the privations of war, EH sends TSE for Christmas,
Christian News-Letter (CNL), TSE's way of writing for, described, first number, TSE's commitment to as war work, TSE on Papal Encyclical, TSE's colleagues not quite friends, becoming too politic for TSE, features TSE on Wells's New World Order, 'Education in a Mass Society', TSE's guest-editorship of, TSE gives talk for, relocates to Oxford, 'Responsibility and Power', TSE, Hambleden and Mrs Bliss discuss,
Demant, Revd Vigo Auguste, appeals to TSE as economist, drinks and smokes in holy company, at heavy Criterion gathering, potential reader for Boutwood Lectures, as CNL editorial collaborator, sound on H. G. Wells, dull paper for Malvern 1941, at Chandos Group lunch, on TSE's Northern tour, given canonry in St. Paul's,

4.RevdDemant, Revd Vigo Auguste Vigo Auguste Demant (1893–1983), Anglican clergyman; leading exponent of ‘Christian Sociology’; vicar of St John-the-Divine, Richmond, Surrey, 1933–42: see Biographical Register.

Dukes, Ashley, described by Yeats to TSE, approaches Doone over Mercury Theatre season, lines up Mercury Murder revival, with which he is pleased, his ambitions for Murder, which Brace upsets, instructed as to Murder New York negotiations, hustling in New York, from where he reports, agrees about Speaight's decline, explains miscarriage of 1936 American production, at 100th performance of Murder, latest plans for Murder, revised plans for New York, dares to call TSE in morning, TSE's royalty arrangement with, policing pirate productions of Murder, discusses Murder's America rights, full of grand desgins, takes Browne into partnership, on Murder's Abdication Crisis resonance, among Family Reunion's first readers, plans for Murder, American Murder tour, against Family Reunion as title, pleased with Family Reunion fragment, sent full Family Reunion draft, lets EH down, consulted over Gielgud contract, on Gielgud and Family Reunion, negotiating with Saint-Denis, less persuaded by Family Reunion, optimistic on Family Reunion transfer, instructed on Family Reunion licensing, fields Orson Welles enquiry, suggests wartime Murder revival, which he mounts without consulting TSE, attempting season of miniature operas, submits theatrical reminiscences to TSE, and Murder film rights, book launch for memoirs, reports on TSE's continental productions, gives Garrick Club dinner for TSE, takes full control of Mercury, accompanies TSE to Germany, La Mandragola, The Scene is Changed, Too Many Twins,
see also Dukes, the

4.AshleyDukes, Ashley Dukes (1885–1959), theatre manager, playwright, critic, translator, adapter, author; from 1933, owner of the Mercury Theatre, London: see Biographical Register.

Dunn, Esther Cloudman,

10.EstherDunn, Esther Cloudman Cloudman Dunn (1891–1977), Professor of English, Smith College, 1923–59; works include The Literature of Shakespeare’s England (1936); Shakespeare in America (1939).

East Coker, its Kensington origins, and TSE's cousins' visit, TSE's own plan to visit eponymous village, which he does, TSE returns to East Coker, TSE on writing, and Yeats's Purgatory, needs polishing, ready for printer, EH sent, decision to print in NEW, TSE on its mood, sales, reception, EH yet to receive, EH promised shilling edition, broadcast by BBC Eastern Service, draft inevitably bought by Gallup, TSE recites for Czechs, EH recounts recitation of, TSE's recording of,
Latham, Stuart, replaces Browne in Murder revival,

4.StuartLatham, Stuart Latham (1912–93), stage and film actor; director; later a TV producer (in 1960 he was to be the first producer of Coronation Street, episodes 1–60).

Lawrence, David Herbert ('D. H.'), his singularity as poet, piece of faux-Eliotana concerning, as writer of letters, TSE appreciates loneliness of, deranges TSE, singled out Bain's 'Disraeli' for praise, on The Criterion, represented better in Revelation, David, 'The Prussian Officer',
Löwe, Adolf, at first Moot meeting, in relation to CNL, differs from TSE on education,

1.Adolf LöweLöwe, Adolf (or Adolph Lowe/Loewe; 1893–1995) – economist and sociologist. Born in Stuttgart, he was educated in Munich and Berlin, gained his doctorate at Tübingen, and served in the German Army, 1914–15. Following a period as an economic adviser to the Weimar Government, 1918–24, and as head of international statistics at the Federal Bureau of Statistics, 1924–6, he taught at the University of Kiel. From 1926 to 1931 he was Director of Research and Educational Studies and Professor of Economics at the Institute of World Economics. He became Professor of Economics, University of Frankfurt (associating with the ‘Frankfurt School’ of sociology), 1931–3 – whereupon, in the spring of 1933, having been dismissed as a ‘dangerous intellectual’ by the Nazis, Löwe (who was Jewish) wisely fled with his family to Britain, where he became a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow and taught at the University of Manchester. In Sept. 1939 he became a naturalised British subject. In 1940 he left Britain for the USA, where he became Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research, New York, retiring in 1978. His works include Economics and Sociology: A plea for cooperation in the social sciences (1935), The Price of Liberty: A German on contemporary Britain (1936), On Economic Knowledge: Toward a science of political economics (1965), and The Path of Economic Growth (1976).

Mannheim, Karl, at TSE's Maritain dinner, and CNL, dinner in Cambridge with, notable correspondence with, Man and Society,
see also Mannheims, the

3.KarlMannheim, Karl Mannheim (1893–1947), Hungarian–Jewish sociologist: see Biographical Register.

Mercury Theatre, London, Yeats proposes season at, from the outside, possible Murder premiere at, season in financial straits, stage too small for Doone, to stage Murder revival, rehearsal at, Murder coming off at, hard to imagine Murder beyond, Dukes proposes new Mercury Theatre, Martin Browne's York Nativity Play, presents The Ascent of F6, Murder in re-rehearsal at, possible venue for Family Reunion, Dukes's La Mandragola, new Murder revival at, attempts season of miniature operas, 'initimate opera' at, its French equivalent, hosts New Plays by Poets, and 1946 Family Reunion revival, Martin Browne's proposal to stage revue at, presents Saroyan play, graced with royal visit, staging Playboy of the Western World, possible destination for Cocktail Party,
Mirrlees, Emily Lina ('Mappie', née Moncrieff), taken round the Tower, invites TSE to Shamley, described for EH, offers to house TSE gratis, her religion, as horticulturalist, concerns TSE, her distress on animals' behalf, not an irritant, secures better gardener for Shamley, circumstances in which she offered TSE refuge, indifferent to enlarging acquaintance, engineers solitude at Shamley, surprises TSE with lobster and cigars, reduces TSE's rent, celebrates 80th birthday, abed and anxious, anxious about North African campaign, going deaf, boosted by son's promotion, receives offer for Shamley, theatrical by nature, TSE prefers being alone with, TSE's sense of responsibility to, spoils TSE on his birthday, aflutter over Christmas turkey, delighted by recording at Shamley, takes in hopeless cases, collector of recipes, pleased by TSE's lawnmowing, hankers after life in Menton, dreams of leaving Shamley, pulls out of selling Shamley, as landlady, frustrations with gardener, her aura, summons TSE to Shamley, during TSE's final Shamley Christmas, dying, still just living, dies following operation, Wishful Cooking,
see also Mirrleeses, the

3.HopeMirrlees, Emily Lina ('Mappie', née Moncrieff) Mirrlees’s mother was Emily Lina Mirrlees, née Moncrieff (1862–1948) – known as ‘Mappie’ or ‘Mappy’ – see Biographical Register.

Mirrlees, Hope, sketched for EH, at the Eliots' tea-party, part of Bloomsbury society, VHE complains about TSE to, dinner in company with, and mother taken sightseeing, ordeal of a walk with, dinner and chess with, and her dachshund, exhausting but pitiable, her mother preferable, her religion, to Mappie as Eleanor Hinkley to Aunt Susie, irritates like Eleanor, indifferent to enlarging her acquaintance, at Shamley, researching in Worthing Public Library, bathing daily at Lee, and TSE judge fancy-dress parade, during TSE's final Shamley Christmas, suffers 'collapse', in Stellenbosch, visits London, go-between in TSE's second marriage,
see also Mirrleeses, the

2.HopeMirrlees, Hope Mirrlees (1887–1978), British poet, novelist, translator and biographer, was to become a close friend of TSE: see Biographical Register.

Murder in the Cathedral, idea for initially suggested by Laurence Irving, offered to Martin Browne, St. Thomas as TSE's muse, TSE on writing, tentatively, 'The Archbishop Murder Case', uncertainties over title, currently 'Fear in the Way', which proves unpopular, TSE on rewriting, title settled on, final revisions for printer, tentatively critiqued by EH, and EH on TSE as dramatist, chorus copied for EH, Virginia Woolf's aspersions on, the form of its choruses, defended from obscurity, did not test TSE's plotting, book-sales to-date, $1,000 offered for American rights, pays for 1936 American trip, Italian and Hungarian rights sold, and Whiggery, Savile Club dinner to celebrate, compared to next play, discrepancies of Canterbury Text, Martin Browne's initial response to, TSE recognised as author of, TSE on its cheerful title, EH on, abandoned Mercury Theatre premiere, suggested by Yeats and Doone, in the offing, and Doone's response to first draft, EH requested at, imperilled, text copied for Yeats, 1935 Canterbury Festival production, in rehearsal, opening night, reception, final performance, and EH's response, 1935–6 Mercury Theatre revival, Martin Browne pushing for, in rehearsal, which EH attends, compared to Canterbury original, at the box-office, its 100th performance, still running, proposed tour to end, 1936 BBC radio version, BBC bid to produce, broadcast fixed, BBC memo on, in rehearsal, TSE on, abortive 1936 New York transfer, Dukes visits America to arrange, blighted by Brace's actions, quashed by Federal Theatre production, its usurper founders, deferred to autumn, unsolicited 1936 New York production, licensed by Brace, to be directed by Rice, seemingly withdrawn, Rice resigns from, delights EH and Eleanor Hinkley, TSE sent press-cuttings for, EH reports on, TSE speculates as to textual discrepancies, attended by Eleanor Roosevelt, extended and potentially expanded, TSE to the Transcript on, may predispose immigration authorities favourably in future, royalties from, 1936 University College, Dublin student production, described by TSE, rumoured Australian and American productions, 1936 Gate Theatre touring production, TSE's long-held wish, scheduled, 1936 touring production, due at the Arts Theatre, Cambridge, as it was played in Cambridge, 1936 America pirate production, 1937 Duchess Theatre West End transfer, date fixed for, announced in Times, dress-rehearsal attended, reception, reviewed, royalties, still playing, ticket sales pick up, coming to an end, receives royal visit, 1937 touring production, scheduled post-Duchess, beginning in Leeds, then Manchester, going strong, 1937 Harvard University production, 1937 Amherst College production, singled out for praise, 1937 Old Vic production, touring production arrived at, in rehearsal, 1937 Tewkesbury Drama Festival production, 1938 American tour, projected for January 1937, said date seconded by Dukes, deferred to September 1937, confirmed again by Dukes, pre-tour dates in Golders Green, then Liverpool, opening in Boston in January, over which EH is consulted, tour itinerary, Family Reunion keeps TSE from, preparatory re-rehearsal for, pre-crossing Liverpool dates, EH's judgement desired, EH reports on first night, reviewed in The Times, EH sends New York cuttings, prematurely transferred to New York, Dukes reports on, Westminster Cathedral Hall charity performance, 1940 Latham Mercury revival, revival suggested in rep with Family Reunion, wartime modern-dress production suggested, ambushes TSE, in rehearsal, first night, reviewed, Browne's wartime Pilgrim Players' adaptation, Hoellering film, Hoellering's initial approach made, Hoellering's vision for, TSE adapting for screen, reconnoitre of Canterbury for, casting Becket, recording made for, development process described to NYT, non-actor found for Becket, screenings of Groser, set-dressing, screening, approaching release, still in the edit, final screening, and Venice Film Festival, seeking distribution, soon to premiere, opens, initial reception, circulating in shortened version, 1945 Théâtre du Vieux Colombier production, compared to Martin Browne's, royalties, apparently a hit, reviewed, reaches 150 performances, Fluchère's involvement, 1946 German production, 1947 Edinburgh Festival production, 1948 Milton Academy production, 1949 broadcast, 1949 Berlin production, politically resonant, 1952 University of Rennes, Grand Théâtre abridgment, 1952 Théatre National Populaire production, 1953 Old Vic revival, waiting on Donat, TSE on, 1954 Harvard production,
Neilson, William Allan, as TSE's host at Smith, familiar of Sheff's, confers assistant professorship on EH, able to extend EH's contract, as President of Smith,

8.WilliamNeilson, William Allan Allan Neilson (1869–1946), Scottish-American scholar, educator, lexicographer, author (works include studies of Shakespeare and Robert Burns; editions of Shakespeare): President of Smith College, 1917–39. See Margaret Farrand Thorp, Neilson of Smith (1956).

Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, conceived as money-spinner, written as jeu d'esprit, individual poems sent to EH, early fragment of 'Rumpuscat', as outlined to GCF, and 'the Heaviside layer', TSE despairs of finishing, provisionally Mr Eliot's Book of Pollicle Dogs and Jellicle Cats and Other Birds & Beasts, as advertised by GCF, delayed by Milton and Byron essays, written to relieve political gloom, written in tours de force, written occasionally, and Children's Hour, TSE asked to recite, TSE at leisure to write, Hodgson promises to illustrate, Hodgson as 'the Man in White Spats', to appear autumn 1939, TSE to design cover, published, read in the Roberts household, sent to EH, reception, selling strongly, being reprinted, published in America, EH receives, the illustrations, the original Cat Morgan, read to the Roberts children, 'Bustopher Jones: The St. James's Street Cat', 'Gus: The Theatre Cat', 'Marching Song of the Pollicle Dogs', 'Old Deuteronomy', 'Song of the Jellicles', 'The Naming of Cats', 'The Old Gumbie Cat', 'The Practical Cat', 'The Rum Tum Tugger',
Ridler, Anne (née Bradby), already favoured for F&F promotion, greatly preferred to O'Donovan, her secretarial duties, impresses TSE, her impending marriage, ill and engaged, invites TSE to be godfather, TSE writes preface for, TSE's blurb for, writes letter of condolence to GCF, presented to Edith Sitwell, 'une âme pure', Little Book of Modern Verse, The Shadow Factory,

3.AnneRidler, Anne (née Bradby) (Bradby) Ridler (30 July 1912–2001), poet, playwright, editor; worked as TSE’s secretary, 1936–40: see Biographical Register.

Sayers, Dorothy L., congratulates TSE on Family Reunion, on Family Reunion and Christian acceptance, takes tea with TSE, scheme for a wartime theatre, her Christian News-Letter contributions, at Bishop Bell's conference,

1.DorothySayers, Dorothy L. L. Sayers (1893–1957), crime writer, playwright, translator, essayist: see Biographical Register.

Spender, Stephen, described for EH, poems published by F&F, what TSE represents to, attacks After Strange Gods, his objections to After Strange Gods, and Sweeney rehearsal, and lunching young men generally, evening with JDH, Jennings and TSE, TSE chairs his 'free verse' talk, at the Woolfs with TSE and EH, describes club lunch with TSE, his first marriage, 'Eclipse of the Highbrow' controversy, introduces new wife Natasha, gives musical party, at Lady Colefax's Wavell dinner, part of British contingent at Norwegian dinner, chairs TSE's Whitman talk, which he does in fireman's uniform, at poetry reading to Free Hungarians, takes issue with Roy Campbell, exchanges conciliatory sonnets with TSE, object of Rowse's anger, his German sensibility, an innocent fool, encomium for TSE's 75th, 'Four Poems', The Temple, Trial of a Judge, 'Vienna',

12.Stephen SpenderSpender, Stephen (1909–95), poet and critic: see Biographical Register.

Vickers, Geoffrey,

3.GeoffreyVickers, Geoffrey Vickers (a solicitor and social theorist; non-Christian), ‘Educating for a Free Society’, Christian News-Letter, 31 Jan 1940, 1–7.

Waterlow, Sydney, Roger Wolcott reminscent of, on Abyssinia, ex-husband to Orlo Williams's wife, discussed with Virginia Woolf,

3.SydneyWaterlow, Sydney Waterlow, KCMG (1878–1944) joined the diplomatic service in 1900 and served as attaché and third secretary in Washington. TSE met him in 1915, when Waterlow invited him to review for the International Journal of Ethics (Waterlow was a member of the editorial committee). In 1919 Waterlow served at the Paris Peace Conference (helping to negotiate the Treaty of Versailles), and in 1920 he was re-appointed to the Foreign Office, later serving as Minister to Bangkok, 1926–8; Sofia, 1929–33; Athens, 1933–9. See further Sarah M. Head, Before Leonard: The Early Suitors of Virginia Woolf (2006).

Wells, Herbert George ('H. G.'), TSE meets ex-mistress of, inevitably at the Garrick, opposed by TSE on Rights of Man, The New World Order,
winter, from Woburn Square window, in London, of fog and smoke, heavy snow, coldest in memory, skating on Serpentine possible, at Shamley, of 1947,
Woolf, Virginia, the only woman TSE sees alone, characteristic letter from, her snobbery, TSE's most trusted female friend, TSE underrates, on the Eliots' Rodmell visit, as estate agent, her letters, as novelist, apparently drained by Lady Colefax, and Lytton Strachey's death, compared qua friend to OM, recounts TSE's practical jokes, her feminism, her anecdote of Bostonian snobbery, on 9 Grenville Place, TSE treasures but never reads, on TSE visiting Rodmell, EH taken to tea with, described by EH, on meeting EH, on Murder in the Cathedral, after 'long illness', represents TSE at OM's funeral, records TSE on Family Reunion, on TSE's wartime Sussex stay, on wartime dinner with TSE, her death, TSE strikes as conceited, TSE's scheduled final visit to, two journals vie for TSE's tribute to, TSE's tribute to, esteemed by Walpole, her absence at Rodmell, air-stewardess asks TSE about, A Room of One's Own, Jacob's Room, The Waves,
see also Stephens, the, Woolfs, the

1.VirginiaWoolf, Virginia Woolf (1882–1941), novelist, essayist and critic: see Biographical Register.

Woolfs, the, at Clive Bell's for lunch, TSE's dearest London friends, company compared to that of Christians, host TSE and Elizabeth Bowen to tea, Rodmell described, closer to TSE than to VHE, visited on TSE's 1933 return, refreshingly childless, amazed by TSE's appearance, and Tomlin dine with TSE, Keynes and TSE dine with, TSE's Bloomsbury weekend with, described in their Tavistock Square domain, have TSE for tea, TSE dines with, and TSE argue about honours, compared to the de la Mares, host TSE for weekend, abandon London for Sussex, where they invite TSE, TSE's Sussex stay with, on their return from Sussex, host TSE, give dinner without mentioning war, TSE plans to visit in Sussex, 52 Tavistock Square bombed,
writing, and routine, to EH, like talking to the deaf, development and development in the writer, and 're-creative thought', TSE's pace of working, correspondence, and Beethoven, and whether to keep a notebook, dialogue, and loving one's characters, and the necessity for reinvention, to someone as against speaking, plays written chiefly for EH, prose between poems, poetry versus prose, and originality, poetry three hours every morning, plot, and obscurity, blurbs, letters of rejection, requires periods of fruitful latency, on new typewriter, TSE's 'old Corona', the effect of war on, and reading, as taught by the book, prize-day addresses, weekly articles, concisely, from imagination, from experience, for broadcast, out of doors, rewriting old work, and public-speaking, by hand,