[22 Paradise Rd., Northampton, Mass.]

T. S.Eliot
EmilyHale
TS
Shamley Wood
Letter 67.
10 December 1940
My dear girl,

No letter from you since I last wrote a week ago, and the end of the year draws on apace, a year we shall be glad to see the end of. I suppose that before Christmas I may receive a letter to tell me where you are during the holidays; but you would not have known in time for me to direct a letter anywhere but to Northampton. IChristianitythe Church Year;d8in wartime;b1 don’t suppose that this will succeed in being a quite normal Christmas even in America: but the less of normal festivity, the more opportunity to concentrate our minds on the religious festival – which is still a ‘festival’ even for the darkest times and places. I shall send no Christmas cards – if one sends any, it is impossible to know where to stop: and as for presents, I shall send cash to my god-children in England, andMirrlees, Emily Lina ('Mappie', née Moncrieff);a6 try to buy something for Mrs. Mirrlees (a gramophone record, probably) andFabers, the;f3 something for the Fabers. ThisSt. Stephen's Church, Gloucester RoadChristmas without;a9 is the first Christmas that I shall not have at St. Stephen’s: I shall miss that very much, and the following holy days; but there will be no one for me to stop with in London, and I shall do better to stay quietly in the country, where there will be no family celebration. I am rather concerned about Mrs. Mirrlees andMoncrieff, Constance ('Cocky')used to a Riviera winter;a2 her sister Miss Moncrieff – the former used to go to the South of France every winter, and the latter lived for 26 years in Pau, which she only left in June: so I hope that on their account the winter will be a mild one. MrsMirrlees, Emily Lina ('Mappie', née Moncrieff)her religion;a7. M. being a Christian Scientist complicates matters – MissMirrlees, Hopeher religion;b6 M. like Hope, is a Papist. IMirrlees, Maj.-Gen. William Henry Buchanan ('Reay')with brigade in North Africa;a1 wish that the son were nearer at hand, but he is commanding a brigade in the East.1 There is however the other daughter at Bicester, who seems a pretty efficient woman. IMoncrieff, Alexander;a1 don’t know anything about the brother in Edinburgh, Lord Moncrieff the lawyer.2

I had my round of Oxford and London last week; and tomorrow London for one night. Next week I go straight to London on Wednesday, Oxford on Thursday, LondonLiterary Society, TheTSE's efforts to elect GCF to;b1 on Friday to lunch with the Literary Society (IFaber, Geoffreyand Literary Society membership;h5 am trying to get Geoffrey in and also to keep another man out, but I don’t expect to succeed, asAll Souls College, Oxfordover-represented in the Literary Society;a3 some members seem to think they have as many All Souls men already as they want)3 and return here on Friday afternoon, not going to town at all during Christmas week. ThereChrist Church, Shamley Greennice but low;a3 is a nice little church here, with a parson who is I am told a very good man: of course the ordinary low church forms. It has been pleasant staying with the Fabers, and I really don’t think that I could be contented living in any place not my own, unless I got the regular break. InFaber, GeoffreyTSE's wartime intimacy with;h6 the ordinary business course I see very little of Geoffrey, except to discuss business matters; and the weekly evening with them in Hampstead – with the greater informality of having no servants – helps towards an intimacy which is difficult to establish with so reserved and diffident a man, even after fifteen years friendship.

IDry Salvages, Thebegun;a2 have been toiling this morning at the attempt at a new poem to follow ‘East Coker’ 4 – to be watery in same way as that is of the earth: more because I felt that I ought to try, because it may be of value that people should go on writing poetry now if they are in a position to do so, and also to help to justify to myself my comparative ease and immunity – more for these reasons than because I felt any strong impulse or inner courage to write. By Christmas I hope to have finished one draft, and then to know whether the draft is good enough as a whole to be worth trying to perfect: this first stage is only got through by stubbornness, for the original impulse has eluded me like a dream on waking, and the verse has not gained its own impetus. But there is only the trying.5 If I can get this out of me I may feel more assurance for the Mixed Society essay in the new year: forwritingpoetry versus prose;b6 although doing a satisfactory piece of prose does not make the beginning of a poem any easier, the doing of a satisfactory piece of verse gives confidence for the next prose task, however different and unrelated.

I pray that you may have a peaceful and holy Christmas, unfretted by people but not lonely.

Your loving
Tom

I have had to buy my own diary!

1.MajMirrlees, Maj.-Gen. William Henry Buchanan ('Reay').-Gen. William Henry Buchanan ‘Reay’ Mirrlees, DSO, CB, MC (1892–1964), served in the Royal Artillery. He was the only son of William Julius and Emily Lina Mirrlees, brother of Hope Mirrlees.

2.AlexanderMoncrieff, Alexander Moncrieff, Lord Moncrieff (1870–1949), lawyer and judge; Senator of the College of Justice; later a Privy Counsellor.

3.In due course, James Laver (1899–1975) – author, critic, art historian; Keeper of Prints, Drawings and Paintings at the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1938–59 – was to worst Faber in the election to the Literary Society by just one vote.

4.‘The Dry Salvages’.

5.‘For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.’ (‘East Coker’)

All Souls College, Oxford, and Isaiah Berlin's election to, evening with GCF at, over-represented in the Literary Society, lodges TSE, and the Fabers' property dealings, festivities at,
Christ Church, Shamley Green, nice but low, midwinter morning services at, Pilgrim Players' 'Way of the Cross', Holy Week 1941 at, Christmas at, Pilgrim Players' Resurrection at, at Harvest Festival, Christmas Eve midnight-mass at,
Christianity, and human isolation, and modern economics, Ada on TSE's personal piety, scheme for 'Pro Fide' bookshop, among the Eliot family, and beauty, its sects like different clubs, Anglo-Catholicism, TSE's conversion to, which he dates to Eccleston Square meeting, Anglican Missal sought for EH, but unfortunately out of print, discussed at Boston Theological School, and the Petrine Claims, apostolic succession, over Roman Catholicism, as refuge from VHE, and the Reformation, asceticism, discipline, rigour, the necessity for, and TSE's daily exhortation, making and breaking habits, mastering emotions and passions, as salubrious, only remedy for a prurient culture, confession and communion, more possible during Harvard year, the case for unattainable ideals, in time of war, gets TSE up before 7 o'clock, hereditary with TSE, belief, and good poetry, faced with Second World War, and conversion, antidote to TSE's skepticism, Christendom, TSE ponders the decline of, TSE on his prominence within, its ruin, the Church Visible and Invisible, and TSE's war work, the Malabar Church, prospect of total reunion within, confession, helps to objectify sin, more dreaded than dentist, harder in the morning, death and afterlife, the struggle to prepare for, consoles TSE in life, and cremation, Requiem Mass, gives meaning to life, and what makes a desirable burial place, the nature of eternal life, divorce, unrecognised by Anglo-Catholic Church, which TSE regrets, in church law, would separate TSE from Church, evil, TSE's belief in, and moral percipience, guilt, and the New England conscience, hell, TSE's 1910 vision of, and damnation, according to TSE, liturgy, TSE's weekly minimum, Mass of the Pre-sanctified, Requiem Mass versus Mass of Good Friday, and whether to serve at Mass, Imposition of Ashes, at Christmas, High Mass over Mattins, aversion to Low Church Mattins, Roman service in Wayland, Tenebrae, in country parish church, as guest at Kelham, remarkable sermon, over Christmas, Tenebrae and Family Reunion, during Holy Week, Mass of Charles King and Martyr, love, loving one's neighbour, marriage, TSE's need for privacy within, mysticism and transcendence, interpenetration of souls, intimations of life's 'pattern', 'doubleness', arrived at through reconciliation, orthodoxy, only remedy for contemporary culture, and pagans, sets TSE at odds with modernity, necessarily trinitarian, 'Christian' defined, iniquities of liberal theology, and creed, authority, Transubstantiation, TSE disclaims 'self-centredness' in maintaining, politics, the Church and social change, how denomination maps onto, need for working-class priests, church leaders against totalitarianism and Nazism, Christianity versus Fascism and Communism, Papal Encyclical against Nazi Germany, the 'Dividend morality', Presbyterianism, TSE quips on the meanness of, Quakerism, resignation, reconciliation, peace, TSE's love allows for, 'peace that passeth all understanding', the struggle to maintain, following separation from VHE, retreat and solitude, EH at Senexet, the need for, a need increasing with age, and TSE's mother, Roman Catholicism, TSE's counter-factual denomination, Rome, sacraments, Holy Communion, marriage, sainthood, TSE's idea of, the paradoxes of, susceptible of different sins, sins, vices, faults, how to invigilate, the sense of sin, the sinner's condition, bound up with the virtues, as a way to virtue, TSE's self-appraisal, when humility shades into, when unselfishness shades into, among saints, proportionate to spiritual progress, daydreaming, despair, lust, pride, perfection-seeking pride, spiritual progress and direction, TSE's crisis of 1910–11, EH's crisis, versus automatism, TSE's sense of, towards self-knowledge, in EH's case, as personal regeneration, temptation, to action/busyness, the Church Year, Advent, Christmas, dreaded, happily over, TSE rebuked for bah-humbugging, church trumps family during, season of irreligion, thoughts of EH during, unsettling, fatiguing, in wartime, Easter preferred to, Ash Wednesday, Lent, season for meditation and reading, prompts thoughts of EH, Lady Day, Holy Week, its intensity, arduous, preserved from public engagements, exhausting but refreshing, excitingly austere, Easter, better observed than Christmas, missed through illness, Unitarianism, the Eliots' as against EH's, the prospect of spiritual revival within, as personified by TSE's grandfather, regards the Bible as literature, as against Catholicism, divides EH from TSE, and whether Jesus believed himself divine, according to Dr Perkins, in England as against America, over-dependent on preachers' personality, TSE's wish that EH convert from, outside TSE's definition of 'Christian', the issue of communion, baptism, impossibly various, virtues heavenly and capital, bound up with the vices, better reached by way of sin, charity, towards others, in Bubu, TSE's intentness on, delusions of, as against tolerance, chastity, celibacy, beneath humility, TSE lacks vocation for, faith, and doubt, hope, a duty, TSE's struggle for, humility, distinguished from humiliation, comes as relief, greatest of the virtues, propinquitous to humour, not an Eliot virtue, opposed to timidity, danger of pride in, is endless, TSE criticised for overdoing, theatre a lesson in, most difficult of the virtues, possessed by EH, possessed by EH to a fault, TSE compares himself to EH in, the paradox of, distinguished from inferiority, self-discovery teaches, possessed by Dr Perkins, patience, recommended to EH, its foundations, possessed by Uncle John, purity, distinguished from purification, temperance, with alcohol, beneath humility,
Dry Salvages, The, and Woods Hole, begun, being composed, first draft, on draft no. 5, early version seen by Henry, defended from charge of cheerlessness, reception, praised by Kennard Rand, sales, conchological emendation,
Faber, Geoffrey, made TSE's literary executor, described for EH, as friend, overawed by Joyce, recounts the Eliots' dinner-party, discusses international situation with TSE, his annual effort to diet, introduced to TSE by Whibley, favours TSE taking Norton Professorship, suggests garden-party for TSE, mislays key to Hale correspondence, writes to TSE about separation, which he helps TSE over, blesses Scotland tour with whisky, victim of Holmesian prank, favours 'The Archbishop Murder Case', Times articles on Newman, Russell Square proclaims his gentlemanly standards, forgives TSE and Morley's prank, as tennis-player, champion of Haig biography, social insecurities, and the Faber family fortune, advertises 'Pollicle Dogs and Jellicle Cats', at lavish lunch for Dukes, relieved that 'Work in Progress' progresses, and JDH, needs persuading over Nightwood, on Edward VIII's abdication, Old Buffer's Dinner for, wins at Monopoly, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, thrilled by complimentary tickets, The Family Reunion described to, in line to read Family Reunion, has mumps, composes Alcaics from sickbed, at TSE and JDH's dinner, shares EH's Family Reunion criticism, on TSE's dinner-party bearing, discusses F&F's wartime plans, on meeting Ralph Hodgson, asks TSE to stay on during war, takes TSE to Oxford, argues with Major-General Swinton, and Purchase Tax exertions, and Literary Society membership, TSE's wartime intimacy with, drops teeth on beach, offers criticisms of 'Rudyard Kipling', falsely promised Literary Society membership, but eventually elected, helps revise TSE's Classical Association address, reports to Conversative Education Committee, deputed to America on publishing business, returned from America, Ada too ill to see, discusses National Service on BBC, depended on for breakfast, as fire-watching companion, and TSE rearrange attic at 23 Russell Square, recommends blind masseuse to TSE, in nursing home, and the Spender–Campbell spat, on TSE's Order of Merit, approached for essay on TSE, seeks to protect TSE's serenity, as Captain Kidd, wins fancy-dress prize, TSE's trip to Spain with, and National Book League, receives knighthood, on TSE's paroxysmal tachycardia, dies, his death,
see also Fabers, the

11.GeoffreyFaber, Geoffrey Faber (1889–1961), publisher and poet: see Biographical Register.

Fabers, the, model of happiness and respectability, their domestic situation, Faber children to tea chez Eliot, visit TSE at Pike's Farm, compared to the Morleys, closer to TSE than to VHE, 1933 summer holiday with, Ty Glyn Aeron described, request TSE to write play, too absorbed in their children, at the Morleys' party, give anti-Nazi party for author, host poker party, 1934 summer holiday with, take TSE to lunch in Oxford, 1935 summer holiday with, for which the children are bought tent, give party, 1936 summer holiday with, at Morleys' Thanksgiving Day party, sail model boats with TSE, and TSE's foggy adventure, cinema-going with TSE, take TSE to Witch of Edmonton, and Morleys take TSE to pantomime, and TSE attend opening of Ascent of F6, 1937 summer holiday with, and the Bradfield Greek play, School for Scandal with, take TSE to pantomime again, 1938 summer holiday with, 1939 summer holiday with, offer possible wartime refuge, 1940 summer holiday with, host TSE in Hampstead during war, TSE makes bread sauce for, brought vegetables from Shamley, move to Minsted, and TSE attend musical revue, 1941 summer holiday with, Minsted as substitute for nursing-home, trying to sell Welsh home, take TSE to International Squadron, invite TSE to Wales for Christmas, host TSE at Minsted, away fishing in Scotland, mourn TSE's post-war independence, 1947 Minsted summer stay, 1948 Minsted summer stay, host TSE for weekend, on 1950 South Africa trip, on TSE's 1951 Spain trip, 1951 Minsted summer stay, 1952 Minsted summer stay, 1953 Minsted summer stay, on 1953–4 South Africa trip, 35th wedding anniversary weekend,
Literary Society, The, TSE's reasons for joining, comical evening with, TSE's efforts to elect GCF to, finally admits GCF,
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.

Mirrlees, Maj.-Gen. William Henry Buchanan ('Reay'), with brigade in North Africa, source of anxiety in Shamley, promoted to major-general, awarded DSO, homecoming animates Mappie, returns from India, TSE's impression of, returns to regiment, at Shamley for Christmas,

1.MajMirrlees, Maj.-Gen. William Henry Buchanan ('Reay').-Gen. William Henry Buchanan ‘Reay’ Mirrlees, DSO, CB, MC (1892–1964), served in the Royal Artillery. He was the only son of William Julius and Emily Lina Mirrlees, brother of Hope Mirrlees.

Moncrieff, Alexander,

2.AlexanderMoncrieff, Alexander Moncrieff, Lord Moncrieff (1870–1949), lawyer and judge; Senator of the College of Justice; later a Privy Counsellor.

Moncrieff, Constance ('Cocky'), resident at Shamley, used to a Riviera winter, as quondam resident of Pau, in London for bridge and Mass, taken to theatre by TSE, chaperoned in London, given to grievances, dispenses fragment of Lourdes grotto, has hair waved, dreams of returning to Pau, peremptory presence at Shamley,
St. Stephen's Church, Gloucester Road, EH encouraged to visit, vestry goings-on, churchwarding at, Christmas at, receives TSE's BBC fee, two days' continuous prayer at, Christmas without, Lent without, wartime Easter at, in wartime, wartime Holy Week, TSE reduced to Sundays at, fundraising for,
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,