[22 Paradise Rd., Northampton, Mass.]
Your letter 84 of April 21 has arrived, and brings a certain amount of good news: your own health report, andPerkinses, the;k1 that of the Perkins’s, and more new (or at least renovated) clothes. Madison (WisAmericaMadison, Wisconsin;f5EH summers in;a3?) seems a long way off: but I think it might be rather a good change, as it is a long time since you have been far afield. But I have never been there, so I should like to know whether it is sufficiently countrified, with if possible a lake, or the lake, and healthful summer diversions, and not too hot in summer? If it has all these merits, I am in favour. YouDukes, Ashleysubmits theatrical reminiscences to TSE;g4 willDukes, AshleyThe Scene is Changed;h7 by the way have seen Ashley Dukes’s reminiscences which have been appearing in the theatre magazine;1 he has just sent me a draft of a section on verse plays and especially on the history of ‘Murder’ for my comments. AndSpeaight, Robert;d6 Bobby Speaight has turned up again: I am to lunch with him soon.
ISmith CollegeEH's employment insecurities at;c3 fearHale, Emilyas teacher;w1insecure over job at Smith;c9 that it is one vice of the American college system that there is too much of a struggle amongst faculties to give courses; with the result that elder members hang on too long or to too many. Nothing but a wise and firm department head can combat this, and it often happens that seniority confers a power upon a professor, within a limited sphere, which no departmental head can break. Whether a threat would get you anything, I of course have no idea, not knowing the situation or the people. One is often deceived in people, because many people who can be the soul of kindness to a harmless junior or inferior, can alter completely when the junior or inferior becomes a potential rival. So I can give no advice: in the present circumstances all I can provide is an attentive and sympathetic ear.
ISecond World WarThe Blitz;c6 don’t think that I have any right to a share in your admiration for the fortitude of Britain! I have been so unusually favoured in circumstances; and I am sure that in some kinds of emergency I should be very ineffective indeed. To a large extent, of course, people go on with normal activities simply because there is no alternative: but I have myself been astonished by the courage of innumerable ordinary people, both in positive acts in crises, and in endurance of danger and hardship. WhetherFaber and Faber (F&F)on war footing;e2 it is easier for the very young (and perhaps the very old) I do not know: but I have always been impressed by the matter of fact cheerfulness of innumerable young girl typists and secretaries, struggling up to town (usually on time) after bad suburban nights, often working under difficult or extemporised conditions, and going home again, often, in the winter, after dark.
IShamley Wood, Surreyhis situation as paying guest;a2 should certainly be foolish to try to move to other surroundings now. I am well fed, and it is peaceful enough here for me to be able to work: and this is not a time in which one can pick and choose one’s conditions. And from now on, with milder weather and improved health (trying to take vitamin pills regularly) I hope to get about more. Mytravels, trips and planspossible wartime transatlantic crossings;d7impossible for TSE unless official;a8 dear, it may be a long time yet, and I have no possibility of coming for a visit unless (as there is no reason to expect) I could be sent on some official mission. So there are only thoughts and prayers: and I am glad that mails are as regular as they are.
MyHenson, Leslie;a1 last visit to town was quite gay: on one evening we went to a revue (amusing enough, with Leslie Henson)2 at Golder’s [sc. Golders] Green, and on the next night dined out at the house of some young men in the Foreign Office.
1.Serialisation of Dukes’s memoir, The Scene is Changed (1942).
2.LeslieHenson, Leslie Henson (1891–1957), English musical comedian, actor and producer. In WW2, in cooperation with Basil Dean, he set up the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA).
4.AshleyDukes, Ashley Dukes (1885–1959), theatre manager, playwright, critic, translator, adapter, author; from 1933, owner of the Mercury Theatre, London: see Biographical Register.
2.LeslieHenson, Leslie Henson (1891–1957), English musical comedian, actor and producer. In WW2, in cooperation with Basil Dean, he set up the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA).
2.RobertSpeaight, Robert Speaight (1904–77), actor, producer and author, was to create the role of Becket in Murder in the Cathedral in 1935: see Biographical Register.