[c/o Revd J. C. Perkins, D.D., Apartment 17, 90 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, Mass.]
YourAmericaWoods Hole, Falmouth, Massachusetts;i2;a3 twoHale, Emilystays with Elsmiths in Woods Hole;n4 communications enclosing post cards, one of the 9th from Portland, and the letter 48 of the 15th from Woods Holl [sic], arrived together; andAmericaMaine;f6its coast remembered by TSE;a1 the pictures roused many memories, the one general of early days cruising on the Maine coast (this, I suppose, was taken in Casco Bay) and the other very particular. I wish that I had sent messages of regard in time to the Ellsmiths and to the children (let me see, Olcott, Taylor, Barbara, Dorothy and Deborah, but Olcott must have finished at Harvard by now) but perhaps you can convey them later, by letter or when you stop with them again. I can still hear the bell-buoy tolling lazily on a quiet summer day. I rejoice that you should have so much time by the sea, and only regret the amount of time you have to spend travelling from place to place: if any one of the situations was ideal for such a stay, I should prefer you to have two continuous months in one place. Cataumet and Nantucket are close to hand, I know. INoyeses, theEH to 'holiday' with;a9Noyes, James Atkins
ThisEnglandLondon;h1TSE as air-raid warden in;d5 week has been very busy with ARP lectures every night; next week comes the examination. AnotherPurchase TaxTSE's efforts to exclude books from;a1 meeting also about the purchase tax on books, andWoolf, LeonardTSE promises article for Political Quarterly;a7 I am trying to write an article on the subject for Leonard Woolf’s ‘Political Quarterly’ andDawson, Christopherpromised article for Dublin Review;a9 then something connected with it for Christopher Dawson’s ‘Dublin Review’ (which has nothing to do with Dublin or Ireland, beyond being R.C.).2 ItChristian News-Letter (CNL)TSE's guest-editorship of;b8 also means that I shall have to write the ‘Christian News Letter’ for three weeks in order to help Oldham to get a holiday; it is flattering perhaps that he feels that I am the only person he wants to take on during his absence, but I do not feel self-confidence. ThisFabers, the1940 summer holiday with;e7 probably means that Itravels, trips and plansTSE's 1940 Faber summer holiday;e1;a3 shall put my visit to Wales to the end of August. OldhamOldham, Josephas editor of CNL;d2 is about 68 now, and has been working under great pressure since the beginning of the war. There is no one who could really replace him – incidentally, he has an amazing gift for finding out who are the right people for his purposes, and getting in touch with them; and the C.N.L. is now read, I believe, in several important government quarters. So it is all the more essential that he should have some relief now. Anyway, many people will not be leaving town at all. AfterIredale, Eleanora;a1 I finish this I must go to their office and talk to Miss Iredale about arrangements.
IFaber, Thomas Erle ('Tom', TSE's godson);b5 can’t remember whether I explained about Tom Faber, as I evidently had not done so by the time you got my last letter before you wrote. The point is that he is 13, and has just won a scholarship to Oundle, which is a very good school for boys of a scientific bent; and Geoffrey feels, quite rightly, I think, that at that point his education should not be interrupted. The other children, of course, are now too old to go. TheTandys, the;b6 Tandys have decided not to send their children. GeorginaDobrée, Georginaevacuated with Hotsons to America;a3 DobréeHotsons, thelooking after Georgina Dobrée;a8Hotson, Leslie
Your letter 48 is a very good one. It is very true that one can learn certain things about a person when separated from them, by seeing them in a different perspective and in relation to their work and duties – though one can have too much of that point of view! AndHale, Emilycorrespondence with TSE;w3constrained by war;g8 I feel, of course, a certain constraint (which has to be reciprocal, alas, to some extent of discretion) in letter writing now, which makes it different from any previous winter. (I say ‘winter’ still, because in that sense it will always be winter for me until communication can be by speech as well as by letter).
IHayward, Johnexcursions to Cambridge to visit;k1 hadHugh Inneses, thevisited in Cambridge;a3 aSmyth, Revd Charlesand wife visited by TSE;a8 good weekend at Cambridge, though the weather was not quite so benign as in May – on the other hand on my last visit I was concerned about the possibility of being interned in Italy. I saw John Hayward, of course; the Innes’s, the Charles Smyths, lunched with the Master, andMagdalene College, Cambridgefeast of St. Mary Magdalen at;a5 feasted in scarlet – a very quiet feast, with no guests – and the tail of the evening watching Gaselee and Turner and two other dons play bridge; then early chapel, in surplice and hood, on St. Mary Magdalene’s Day, and back to town. I expect I shall be in London for the next few weekends.
1.LeonardMartin, Leonard Martin (1887–1971), husband to Alice Eliot (1889–1967).
2.Neither of the pieces mentioned here came to pass.
2.ChristopherDawson, Christopher Dawson (1889–1970), cultural historian: see Biographical Register.
10.GeorginaDobrée, Georgina Dobrée (1930–2008) was to become a distinguished clarinettist; from 1967, Professor of Clarinet at the Royal Academy of Music.
3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: see Biographical Register.
2.RevdEliot, Revd Frederick May (TSE's first cousin) Frederick May Eliot (1889–1958) – first cousin – Unitarian clergyman and author: see Biographical Register.
3.WilliamEliot, William Greenleaf, Jr. (TSE's cousin) Greenleaf Eliot, Jr. (1866–1956), who was born in St. Louis, Missouri, served for twenty-eight years as Minister of the Church of Our Father (Unitarian), in Portland, Oregon, 1906–34.
4.ThomasFaber, Thomas Erle ('Tom', TSE's godson) Erle Faber (1927–2004), TSE’s godson and principal dedicatee of Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, was to become a physicist, teaching at Cambridge, first at Trinity, then for fifty years at Corpus Christi. He served too as chairman of the Geoffrey Faber holding company.
11.JohnHayward, John Davy Hayward (1905–65), editor and critic: see Biographical Register.
5.EleanoraIredale, Eleanora Iredale, Secretary of the Student Christian Movement (SCM); collaborator with J. H. Oldham; assistant editor of the Christian Newsletter; participant in the Christian and political society ‘The Moot’, 1937–48. See Keith Clements, Faith on the Frontier: A Life of J. H. Oldham (1999): ‘Iredale, a product of the SCM and a member of the council of Life and Work, was not only a voluble and forceful character with forthright views on social ills and their remedy: she also had a persuasive gift for finding and tapping sources of money for good causes.’
9.AliceMartin, Alice Eliot (TSE's cousin) Eliot (1889–1967) was married to Leonard Martin (1887–1971).
8.JosephOldham, Joseph (‘Joe’) Houldsworth Oldham (1874–1969), missionary, adviser, organiser: see Biographical Register.
2.AdaSheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister) Eliot Sheffield (1869–1943), eldest of the seven Eliot children; author of The Social Case History: Its Construction and Content (1920) and Social Insight in Case Situations (1937): see Biographical Register.
9.RevdSmyth, Revd Charles Charles Smyth (1903–87), ecclesiastical historian; Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge: see Biographical Register.