[90 Commonwealth Ave.; forwarded to Mrs Edward F. McClennan, East Harwich, Mass.]
Your two letters 45 and 46, of the 24th and 28th June respectively, arrived together yesterday. I was very glad to get the news they contained. I don’t wonder that you felt let down at the end of the term’s activities; indeed I expected it; but I hope that sea air in Maine will help to set you up. Itravels, trips and plansEH's 1939 England visit;d5in TSE's memory;b3 try often to think what was happening to you or to me just a year ago; and though the latter part of the summer remains quite distinct in my mind apart from all previous summers. I mean that while events themselves are perfectly clear, I can’t always be sure whether they happened a year ago, or two, or three. Your party of college girls, for instance, I remember very clearly – with tea at the Hotel Russell etc. – and I am almost sure that that was a year ago, but I should hesitate to affirm it under oath. That is one consequence of the sort of thing that has been happening since, and the speed of events.
IEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother);f5 amEliots, the Henry;a8 very glad to hear of your seeing Henry and Theresa, and only sorry that my cable to him, which was meant to sound cheery and reassuring, should have produced anything like an offhand or snubbing effect. Actually, of course, I am as well off here as I should be in Wales. There is plenty to do. OnCatholic Summer School of Sociology, 1940'The English Tradition' prepared for;a2 returning from Dublin I'English Tradition: Some Thoughts as a Preface to Study, The';a4 had to set to work to do my paper for the Church Summer School, and have just completed it.1 Not having paid much attention to it before, I wondered, when I came to do it, why I had been chosen for this particular subject and why I had accepted: it is ‘Elements of strength and weakness in the English Tradition, civil and religious’ and ought to be done by an historian, which I am not. However, I think I have eluded the difficulties. IEnglandOxford, Oxfordshire;i2in July;a5 shall only go to Oxford for one night – itEnglandLondon;h1TSE as air-raid warden in;d5 is not the most salubrious spot in England in late July anyway – so as not to miss any of the A.R.P.2 lectures which I am following, with the intention of qualifying as a volunteer warden in Kensington: a duty which, however, does not preclude my taking weekends or paying visits. I'Yeats';a5 am having my Yeats lecture copied, soYeats, Georgie (née Hyde-Lees)requests copy of 'Yeats';a2 asYeats, Annerequests copy of 'Yeats';a1 to send copies to Mrs. Yeats and Mrs. [sc. Miss] Yeats,3 and there will be a copy for you. IPerkinses, the;j6 presume that if and when the Perkins’s go away my letters and communications will reach you in time. I should be glad, however, to have approximate addresses, in case I wanted to cable to you – I was going to say, ‘now, you might have thought of that!’
I'Defence of the Islands'pleases EH;a3 was very much pleased also that you liked my Worlds Fair inscription. ThereClark, Kennethand 'Defence of the Islands';a1 were a few alterations I wanted to make, but Kenneth Clark 4 preferred it in its original form. The whole business, of course, is under the Ministry of Information.
AlsoPurchase TaxTSE's efforts to exclude books from;a1 the Purchase Tax (so far as it affects books) has been a very active issue. Faber is up to his ears in it, and I have only incidentally become involved, in seeing people I knew and writing letters to engage their interest. The details of the case seem too complicated and abstract to try to explain now!
ThisMoot, The;b4 weekend there is a Moot at Jordan’s.5 TheChristian News-Letter (CNL)first number;a4 C.N.L. continues to take every Monday evening.
I wish I knew your address.
I don’t think you wrote any 44. 43 was June 20 (Northampton) and 45 June 24 (Boston).
1.‘The English Tradition: Address to the School of Sociology’, Christendom 10 (Dec. 1940), 226–37: CProse 6, 137–48.
2.ARP: Air Raid Precautions.
3.AnneYeats, Anne Yeats (1919–2001) was the only daughter of W. B. Yeats and his wife, Georgie Hyde-Lees.
4.KennethClark, Kenneth Clark (1903–83), patron, collector, historian of the arts. Educated at Winchester and Trinity College, Oxford, he was Director of the National Gallery, 1934–45; Chairman of the Arts Council, 1953–60. He won honours including a life peerage (1969) and the Order of Merit (1976). Writings include Landscape into Art (1949); The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form (1956); Civilisation: a Personal View (1969), based on his TV series Civilisation (1966–9).
5.See TSE, ‘Notes on Social Philosophy’: CProse 6, 96–9.
4.KennethClark, Kenneth Clark (1903–83), patron, collector, historian of the arts. Educated at Winchester and Trinity College, Oxford, he was Director of the National Gallery, 1934–45; Chairman of the Arts Council, 1953–60. He won honours including a life peerage (1969) and the Order of Merit (1976). Writings include Landscape into Art (1949); The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form (1956); Civilisation: a Personal View (1969), based on his TV series Civilisation (1966–9).
3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: see Biographical Register.
3.AnneYeats, Anne Yeats (1919–2001) was the only daughter of W. B. Yeats and his wife, Georgie Hyde-Lees.
9.GeorgieYeats, Georgie (née Hyde-Lees) Yeats, née Hyde-Lees (1892–1968), daughter of Gilbert and Nelly Hyde-Lees, was a close friend of Ezra Pound’s wife, Dorothy Shakespear. After the death of Georgie’s father, her mother married Henry Tucker, Dorothy Shakespear’s maternal uncle.