[22 Paradise Rd., Northampton, Mass.]
Your letter or letters no. 80 arrived yesterday – I mean on Saturday, together. If you would provide yourself with some thin ‘air mail’ paper (now difficult to come by here, but you must have plenty) like this, you need not divide a long letter and so could save thirty cents. It is probably harder to write on; you have to keep the sheet on the pad and write slowly.
My'Towards a Christian Britain'broadcast;a5 broadcast went off well, I think: I cut it down a bit in rehearsal and it took just about the right time. OneBritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC);c4 is not so comfortable sleeping in the basement of the BBC as at the Fabers, and the cafeteria does not provide the most delicate fare; on the other hand the accommodation is free and it was therefore much more economical than going to a hotel. Tomorrowde la Mares, thegive TSE wartime refuge;a6 night and the night after I shall be at Much Hadham: I go up on Tuesday as the office will be closed on Good Friday: performSt. Stephen's Church, Gloucester Roadchurchwarding at;a5 my Easter duties, myBacon, Fr Philip G.receives TSE's confession;a2 old friend Father Bacon being in London again; andChrist Church, Shamley GreenHoly Week 1941 at;a6 makeChristianitythe Church Year;d8at Shamley;c3 do with the meagre Holy Week offices provided by the village church. DidShamley Wood, Surreydramatis personae;a4 I mention that a fairly able bodied chauffeur-gardener has now been found for Shamley Wood: he will take up residence as soon as another place has been found for the elderly man whom he succeeds; and as he seems a very intelligent man, and is an auxiliary fireman to boot, my own feeling of responsibility will be much relieved; soWoolf, VirginiaTSE's scheduled final visit to;d5 that (as soon as the weather is encouraging) I shall be able to visit Cambridge and Salisbury without compunction. One visit will never take place. I had been invited to Rodmell the very weekend that Virginia’s death was announced.1 I had had to refuse, because if the doctor had allowed me any licence beyond the broadcast, IMoot, The;b9 should have had to go to a Moot at Newbury. But I had asked them to ask me again later. IWoolf, LeonardTSE sends letter of condolence;a8 wrote to Leonard, but I have no news of how he is.2 NowWoolf, Virginiatwo journals vie for TSE's tribute to;d6 I have been asked, both by Time & Tide and by Horizon, to write about her; and I must accept one or the other.3 ButWoolf, VirginiaTSE's tribute to;d7 it is extremely difficult. Had I known her less well it would have been easier; had I known her more intimately I should have perhaps better ground for declining: furthermore I knew her rather as a friend to whom I was devoted, than as a famous writer – I am not very familiar with her later work, I don’t read contemporary literature when I can avoid it, and hers was not in my line. To write about Joyce or Yeats, both of whom I rather admired as authors than loved as friends, was facile by comparison.
The spring is still backward. I get a little exercise, besides walks, by sawing wood with the new chauffeur-gardener, who promises well, and who is to move in to the cottage as soon as the elderly gardener (who could not drive a car) whom he replaces has found another billet. I see that I have already given this important news on the previous page: that comes of leaving off for lunch and starting again. IShamley Wood, SurreyTSE leads fire practice at;a9 gave the female staff another fire practice after breakfast: putting an imaginary bomb in one place or another and then seeing how they will cope with it. They are not yet remarkably efficient: but it helps to give them greater confidence.
I was glad to have some news of your holiday which is now over. IPerkinses, theenfeebled;j9 am glad to hear of Henry and Theresa visiting the Perkins’s, but distressed to hear that neither your aunt nor uncle have been so strong. I hope there will be further news of Dr. Perkins’s health in your next letter. AsDry Salvages, Theearly version seen by Henry;a7 for the copy of Dry Salvages which Henry had seen, itFaber, Geoffrey;h8 wasMorley, Frank Vigorentrusted with emergency Dry Salvages;k1 an earlier draft which I had had Geoffrey send to Frank while I was ill, simply because I felt easier to have a copy in America, even if not a final one. IDry Salvages, The;a6 hope that the copies of the N.E.W. with the final version arrived safely: they were mailed about February 27.4 Let me know if you have not had yours.
IMorleys, theseem unhappy in America;j9 don’t think that the Morleys are very happy in their new environment. NothingMorley, Christina (née Innes)America's effect on;c4 would change Christina, except to drive her further in on herself: I have had letters from her, almost entirely filled with reports on the children and accounts of their development. I imagine that as they get older, growing up in an environment to which she will never be able quite to reconcile herself – suburban New York mercantile – she will be lonelier. AndMorley, Frank VigorAmerica's effect on;k2 I don’t think that the life is favourable to Frank’s spiritual life: and I suspect that he knows it – the knowledge may or may not save him. IEliots, the HenryEH urged to see;b1 hope you will see Henry and Theresa whenever you are in Boston.
AsHale, Emilyreligious beliefs and practices;x1compared to TSE's;a5 for your last question, the answer is a very simple one. IfChristianitybelief;b1and conversion;a3 IChristianityUnitarianism;d9outside TSE's definition of 'Christian';b3 had been conscious of any impediment on the ground of religious difference I should have made it clear to you long ago. There is none of that sort. Naturally I regret the difference; but on the other hand I am opposed to all so-called conversions, or rather changes of profession without conviction, either to please anyone or to make matters simpler. It sometimes happens, on one side or the other, in marriage; but I am sure it is wrong for anyone to profess a faith which is not in their intellect and heart. I certainly pray for your becoming a Christian fully: but meanwhile I only ask what I know I have no need to ask, that you live up to your present faith, whatever it is, as fully as you can.
1.Virginia Woolf drowned herself in the River Ouse on 28 Mar. 1941.
2.See TSE to Woolf, 4 Apr. 1941 (Letters 9, 794).
3.‘Virginia Woolf’, Horizon 3: 17 (May 1941), 313–16.
4.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother)recalls The Dry Salvages;g1n Eliot to Donald Gallup, 4 Apr. 1941: ‘TSE has written a new poem, The Dry Salvages, which has appeared in the New English Weekly, Feb. 27 … The Dry Salvages (or Dry Salvages, as I have always heard them called) are a group of rocks off Cape Ann, just beyond Thatcher’s Island twin lights. (We could see the twin lights from our house at East Gloucester, but Dry Salvages were hidden by the hill, and perhaps too far away.)’
2.FatherBacon, Fr Philip G. Philip G. Bacon, then of the Society of Retreat Conductors. Father Bacon (St Simon’s, Kentish Town, London) was to be quoted at the Requiem Mass for TSE at St Stephen’s, 17 Feb. 1965: ‘Eliot had, along with that full grown stature of mind, a truly child-like heart – the result of his sense of dependence on GOD. And along with it he had the sense of responsibility to GOD for the use of his talents. To his refinedness of character is due the fact that like his poetry he himself was not easily understood – but unbelievers always recognized his faith’ (St Stephen’s Church Magazine, Apr. 1965, 9).
3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: see Biographical Register.
11.GeoffreyFaber, Geoffrey Faber (1889–1961), publisher and poet: see Biographical Register.
4.FrankMorley, Frank Vigor Vigor Morley (1899–1980), American publisher and author; a founding editor of F&F, 1929–39: see Biographical Register.
13.LeonardWoolf, Leonard Woolf (1880–1969), writer and publisher; husband of Virginia Woolf: see Biographical Register.
1.VirginiaWoolf, Virginia Woolf (1882–1941), novelist, essayist and critic: see Biographical Register.