[22 Paradise Rd., Northampton, Mass.]
I have now your letter (59 and 60) of Sep. 24 and Oct. 6 to answer. SomeSecond World WarThe Blitz;c6 of your questions are now put out of date by letters of mine, and it is obviously impossible to give details of enemy activity about London: I presume that your papers print the British bulletins, and that you have a set which enables you to listen to short wave broadcasts. IEnglandLondon;h1TSE as air-raid warden in;d5 can only say that I was very fortunate in my ARP ‘arena’, while I was in it, for nothing much happened within several hundred yards, and the more troublesome ‘incidents’ occurred on nights when I was out of town. It was of course very tiring being on duty two nights on end, and trying to carry on business during the day – the result was that Monday and Tuesday were my only effective days for private work. One was able to sleep in quiet spells for as much as a couple of hours at a time: there was a mattrass [sic] on the floor which I stretched out on – but of course not the same benefit as seven or eight uninterrupted hours in bed. One became acutely aware of the sense of hearing, and quite normal sounds aroused attention: I remember on one of my first nights being bothered by a strange sound, going out to reconnoitre, and discovering after several minutes that it was merely dead leaves being swept along the street by the breeze.1 It is often difficult to distinguish whether what you hear is a small noise close by (even indoors) or a greater noise a long way off; and the sound of bombs can be very deceptive. Several times we have thought that a terrific report meant that something had fallen very near, and once or twice nearly ignored bombs that really were our business, because they sounded so far away. It is a question of size and kind, and what it hits. I am afraid that I have no great zest for this kind of activity: to me it is simply an unavoidable duty which is a nuisance and an interruption of everything that one wants to do and is qualified to do. So I am merely thankful to have had no occasion for the display of a heroism which I doubt whether I possess.
IBelvedere Hotel, 9 Grenville Place;a3 had no difficulty in resigning from the post: apart from the interference with my other activities, the expense of living at a hotel and in the country as well was something I could not keep up. AsChristian News-Letter (CNL)first number;a4 soon as I am quite rested, andCorpus Christi College, OxfordTSE's Oxford perch;a1 have paid my visit to Oxford next week for the C.N.L. board meeting (ILivingstone, Sir Richardputs TSE up in Oxford;a1 believe the President of Corpus will put me up) IEnglandShamley Green, Surrey;i7TSE's ARP work in;a1 shall look into the matter of ARP in the village. MeanwhileFabers, thehost TSE in Hampstead during war;e8 I go to the Fabers for Wednesday nights: attend the committee on Wednesdays, and bring back my work on Thursdays. It means that I have to do a great deal of my own secretarial work, but still I gain immensely in working time on balance.
ThedogsDachshund;b9Hope Mirrlees's 'Mary';a2 chief nuisance is a dropsical, overfed and under-exercised dachshund, very pampered. When it tries to walk upstairs, it has to stop and rest every two steps. I think it will probably die of high blood pressure or heart failure; but meanwhile I have no personal reason to complain, because it takes no notice of me. Everyone is very kind to me, and my life is far healthier than in a normal London winter.
Your letter of Sept. 24 was particularly dear and comforting. That you should feel this way is a great help to me. And I particularly admire your fortitude and unselfishness in anxiety. I shall however continue to send brief cables, though I trust you will now be a little less anxious: but, as I said, I purposely do not cable regularly, because when there was any delay they would cause more anxiety than relief. IEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother)nervous about TSE during Blitz;f8 also cable to Henry, who appears to be more nervous about me than any other of the family: he is a nervous and apprehensive temperament anyway.
DidDavis, Herbert;a2 IHayward, John;k2 tell you that your new President is an acquaintance of John Hayward’s? John spoke well of him. If I remember rightly, he was once at Leeds University: 2 soDobrée, Bonamytraining gunner officers;c2, unless I am mistaken on that point, he ought to know Bonamy too. Bonamy is still training gunnery cadets.
I am avid of all information about your ordinary life this year at Smith; and was glad to know that you like your new Hall, and that you are mastering the subtleties of French grammar.
IMorley, Frank VigorEH explains 'Defence of the Islands' to;j7 had no objection to your telling Frank Morley about the inscription for the photographs! 3 It could not have been in use very long, for I read that the New York Fair is now closed.
1.‘Little Gidding’, II:
In the uncertain hour before the morning
—Near the ending of interminable night
—At the recurrent end of the unending
After the dark dove with the flickering tongue
—Had passed below the horizon of his homing
—While the dead leaves still rattle on like tin
Over the asphalt where no other sound was
2.Herbert Davis (1893–1967) was the fourth President of Smith College, 1940–9; he had earlier taught at Leeds University for two years from 1930.
3.‘Defense of the Islands’, ll. 1–2: ‘Let these memorials of built stone – music’s / enduring instrument …’ TSE harboured misgivings as to whether this portentous piece, written on 9 June 1940 – ‘at the request of McKnight Kauffer of “The White House” near Henley, for the Ministry of Information, to accompany an exhibition of war-time photographs to be shown in New York’ – truly qualified as a poem, despite the fact that he eventually included it in Collected Poems. First published in Britain at War, ed. Monroe Wheeler (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1941), 8. See further Poems I, 1046–50.
3.Bonamy DobréeDobrée, Bonamy (1891–1974), scholar and editor: see Biographical Register.
3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: see Biographical Register.
11.JohnHayward, John Davy Hayward (1905–65), editor and critic: see Biographical Register.
1.SirLivingstone, Sir Richard Richard Livingstone (1880–1960), President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 1933–50; Vice-Chancellor, 1944–7. Author of A Defence of Classical Education (1916); The Pageant of Greece (1923); The Future in Education (1941). President of the Classical Association, 1940–1. TSE to Aimée Lamb, 16 Mar. 1948: ‘[Livingstone] is … not only one of the most distinguished men in education, but a very charming person.’
4.FrankMorley, Frank Vigor Vigor Morley (1899–1980), American publisher and author; a founding editor of F&F, 1929–39: see Biographical Register.