[forwarded to The Anchorage, Grand Manan, Maine]
Letter 92.
Your letters 97, the last from Madison, and 98, the first from Boston, have arrived during the course of the week. IFabers, the1941 summer holiday with;f8 amtravels, trips and plansTSE's 1941 Faber summer holiday;e2;a6 taking a typewriter with me to Wales on Wednesday, and from your directions my first letter from there must go to Northampton: the end of what has seemed a very short summer. This afternoon I must pack two bags, as lightly as possible in case of a shortage of porters: Ide la Mares, thegive TSE wartime refuge;a6 spend tomorrow in town and the night at Much Hadham, and proceed to Paddington the following morning. When I return I may spend a week at Hadham – withShamley Wood, SurreyTSE takes week's rest from;b1 a view to giving the Mirrlees a protracted rest from my company while things are quiet. The'Rudyard Kipling';a5 tiresome thing is not being able to drop work altogether: they still hope to bring out the Kipling book before Christmas, but the subject is so difficult that I should like until spring. OnUniversity of BristolTSE's Lewis Fry Lectures;a3 the 2nd October I go to Bristol, and from there for the weekend at Wells on the 4th. Thetravels, trips and plansTSE's 1941 Northern tour;e3proposed by the Christendom group;a1 Christendom group want me to come up to talk to meetings at Newcastle and Durham at the end of that month, but I don’t think I shall have time to prepare for such an occasion! MeanwhileLittle Giddingsuspended;b2 Little Gidding stays in retreat. I have not had any further passages with the dentist’s nurse, and the dentist seems pleased with my mouth: he has been making minor repairs (for repairs there will always be so long as I have one tooth left) but I am afraid that I shall not appear any more comely until the time comes to remove the offending biters.
ItHale, Emilyas actor;v8The Wingless Victory;c6 is disappointing that there have not been better reviews of your play (you don’t say what you think of the play itself) but that is more or less what I shrewdly anticipated: amateur critics and amateur audiences in what I believed is called a hick town are not what you want. IHale, Emilyappearance and characteristics;v7EH encouraged to tan;a9 am relieved by your reassurances about your health with the combination of hard work and extreme heat (I should have liked a little of that American heat myself) it is not surprising that you are thin – IHale, Emilyappearance and characteristics;v7EH encouraged to gain weight;a8 hope that when you say thin you are not dissimulating extreme emaciation. I trust that rest and sea breezes will produce the required degree of plumpness and curves on face and neck, together with a sea brown.
IEliot, Margaret Dawes (TSE's sister)tends to monologue;c7 have met Mr. Bailey1 myself – though not under conditions under which either of us appeared to best advantage, perhaps, as my sister Margaret had me to tea to meet him, and you know that Margaret does all the talking herself. Who is Mr. Martin – the only Mr. Martin I can think of is an Abyssinian statesman. I await with as much anxiety as a parent the result of your examinations. IHinkley, Eleanor Holmes (TSE's first cousin)pursues adult education;c5 hear that Eleanor is still following courses at Harvard: what in you is a commendable devotion to improvement for professional purpose is in her, I fear, merely a bad habit – I mean that while I sympathise with her reasons for it, the habit of going to lectures easily becomes a substitute for thinking. I do wish that I was returning from Wales via Cheltenham and car to Campden: that gave me not only a pleasant holiday in Wales but still pleasanter expectations during it.
ByHale, Emilybirthdays, presents and love-tokens;w2EH buys TSE various ties;e2 the way, the blue tie you gave me is still my best blue (summer) tie, the brown tie is the best for my tweeds; the very light brown is considered perfection with a tropical tussore suit (when that can be worn) and there is a crimson tie which I wear on Saints’ Days. But I never say in the presence of ladies ‘a lady gave me this’ because I do not want to encourage presents of ties from ladies – there is only one who can choose a good tie.
1.Not identified.
6.MargaretEliot, Margaret Dawes (TSE's sister) Dawes Eliot (1871–1956), TSE's second-oldest sister sister, resident in Cambridge, Mass. In an undated letter (1952) to his Harvard friend Leon M. Little, TSE wrote: ‘Margaret is 83, deaf, eccentric, recluse (I don’t think she has bought any new clothes since 1900).’
5.EleanorHinkley, Eleanor Holmes (TSE's first cousin) Holmes Hinkley (1891–1971), playwright; TSE’s first cousin; daughter of Susan Heywood Stearns – TSE’s maternal aunt – and Holmes Hinkley: see Biographical Register.