[22 Paradise Rd., Northampton, Mass.]
Letter 10
Your three letters, July 17 from Woods Holl [sic], July 24 and August 9 arrived more or less on top of each other, forwarded from Shamley (as was also, I probably did not mention, your cable which was rewired to Dollar) (Itravels, trips and plansTSE's 1942 week in Scotland;e6;a4 know that I have written to you about my Scottish visit). IRussell Hotel, TheTSE's week at;a1 have now moved from the Hotel Russell toOxford and Cambridge ClubTSE again perched at;c7 my club, which has been closed for a fortnight, and which is more comfortable, pleasant and cheaper than the hotel. IWatt, BillTSE to visit;a3 go this weekend to visit the Watts in the country – Watt is a Literary Agent, andFaber, Geoffrey;i6 a school friend of Geoffrey’s,1 whom I have known for some years; andde la Mares, thegive TSE wartime refuge;a6 next weekend to visit the De la Mares; theOldham, Joseph;e1 following weekend to a conference of Oldham’s at Jordan’s and after that return to Shamley: how23 Russell Square, Londonunready for occupation;a2 soon the flat at 23 Russell Square will be ready I can’t tell. Maple’s2 have not yet got the curtains up, so I cannot use it in the evening. Speaking of Oldham, I was interested very much by the letter you enclosed, but you didn’t say who wrote it! PerhapsVan Dusen, Revd Dr Henry Pitney;a1 it is a man named Henry van Dusen,3 whom I don’t know; I know that he was over here not long ago: it must be someone whose name I should know, as I know most of the people he mentions meeting: evidently I was in Sweden at the time. But to return to a main point, the people at Shamley are very good about forwarding letters when I am away and always re-telegraph telegrams immediately.
But I am, of course, so concerned by the matter of your letter of July 24 that I can hardly bring my mind to bear on anything else. It is very hard to bear that I cannot come to be near you through this period of anxiety. You are being very brave, as I can tell and as I should always expect: indeed I regard you as a braver person than myself. You wish to spare me as much anxiety as possible, and perhaps I ought to spare you the expression of the anxiety I feel. But this anxiety is based solely on what you tell me yourself: I know only what you have told me and therefore know nothing that you do not know yourself. Even if this all passes off, you will have had a period of great strain. And there is nothing I can Do, I am not even free in wartime to offer to contribute so that you might be assured of the BEST care and the best specialists. IncidentallyHale, Emilybirthdays, presents and love-tokens;w2which turn out large;e7, please do not try to work on those fine socks, which might give eye strain (I shall wear the other socks, as soon as the weather makes such warm ones possible, and we shall see if they shrink in washing). Ittravels, trips and planspossible wartime transatlantic crossings;d7impossible for TSE unless official;a8 is very very hard not to be near at such a time, and I know that no opportunity will present itself until next year at the earliest – and I hope and pray that the situation will then be such that I shall be able, and feel it right, to come in the autumn of 1943 if an opportunity offers – for I certainly cannot just come, without any public reason, before the end of the war. AndEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother)frail;g6 Henry is very frail, andSheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister)has second operation;i1 Ada has had her second operation and I know she feels that if she has to have a third that will be the end; and without any of you three would I ever want to cross the Atlantic again? I await a cable from you. No other matter seems worth discussing except this. I have a great belief, however, in REST and must urge you to be SELFISH. IElsmith, Dorothy Olcott;a4 shall certainly write to Dorothy Ellsmith, and thank her for her postcard of the beach on which we once sat, and her kind message on it. MyLittle Giddingseven lines from completion;b6 only distraction is to finish Little Gidding, I have only seven more lines to write.
IThorps, the;d6 wonder if the interest of the Thorps is not perhaps just a little TOO professional, as I could hear them sharpening their pencils and filling their fountain pens. But more of this later.
1.William Pollock Watt, son of A. P. Watt (founder of the first literary agency in the world).
2.Maple & Co., London: furniture and furnishing outfitters.
3.RevdVan Dusen, Revd Dr Henry Pitney Dr Henry Pitney (‘Pit’) Van Dusen (1897–1975): Christian internationalist and ecumenist, and philosopher (who gained his PhD at Edinburgh University in 1932), taught at Union Theological Seminary from 1928, and was President of Union Theological, 1945–63.
3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: see Biographical Register.
4.TSEElsmiths, theseminal Woods Hole stay with;a1Elsmith, Dorothy Olcott
11.GeoffreyFaber, Geoffrey Faber (1889–1961), publisher and poet: see Biographical Register.
8.JosephOldham, Joseph (‘Joe’) Houldsworth Oldham (1874–1969), missionary, adviser, organiser: see Biographical Register.
2.AdaSheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister) Eliot Sheffield (1869–1943), eldest of the seven Eliot children; author of The Social Case History: Its Construction and Content (1920) and Social Insight in Case Situations (1937): see Biographical Register.
3.RevdVan Dusen, Revd Dr Henry Pitney Dr Henry Pitney (‘Pit’) Van Dusen (1897–1975): Christian internationalist and ecumenist, and philosopher (who gained his PhD at Edinburgh University in 1932), taught at Union Theological Seminary from 1928, and was President of Union Theological, 1945–63.