[c/o Perkins, 90 Commonwealth Ave., Boston]
Letter 25.
I have your letter of December 19. I am very sorry to learn that you received no letters between those written on Oct. 26 and Nov. 24, but almost sorrier to find you entertaining the conjecture that I had let a month go by without writing. I find from my diary that I wrote at least two letters in between; possibly they will arrive out of order. As for the cables, they are sometimes garbled by the housekeeper (though I must say she is pretty good at it, and has practice in the past in taking down cables in French, which she doesn’t understand); but my interpretations were based on the confirmations arriving from the postoffice the next day. In these days, one doesn’t like to ask to have a cable repeated unless it is absolutely essential, and even then I don’t know whether one would get it. Owing to the present situation in the traffic, I fear that we must reconcile ourselves to irregular mails and unintelligible cables for some time to come: and with other parts of the world it is still worse. IPerkinses, the;k6 wrote to the Perkins’s to thank them for their cables, when I did not cable in reply. I will cable you from London this week: it seems more reliable than from a village postoffice.
I23 Russell Square, Londontemperature of;a5 can reassure you again about the warmth and comfort of the Russell Square flat. With that, and my office, IShamley Wood, Surreyoverheated;a7 have really a more equable temperature than at Shamley: for the drawing room there is apt to be rather too hot (as the old ladies need it) and a bedroom with a northern exposure, on the top of a hill, even though sheltered by larches, is not easy to keep at the right temperature. (Theredogsof Shamley Wood;b3 are now five dogs in this establishment, one for each lady and one for the housekeeper, and it is too many for tranquillity. AllBehrens, Margaret Elizabeth (née Davidson)does not spoil her dog;a6 the dogs are wholly spoiled except Margaret Behrens’s). I have not had another cold lately. IFamily Reunion, The1943 ADC production;h6in Dadie Rylands's hands;a1 am, however, wondering whether or not to go to Cambridge next weekend but one, to see the performance of ‘The Family Reunion’ which the undergraduate Dramatic Society is doing. It might be an intelligent production (byRylands, George ('Dadie')disliked by TSE;a1 George Rylands, a fellow of King’s, whom I don’t like),1 though the main parts are of course much too mature for such young folk.2 IHayward, John;l1 had intended not to visit Cambridge this term, as it is so cold there; and my pleasure in going now would be less, so far as seeing John is concerned. SinceHutchinson, St. Johndies;a9 her husband’s death3 (as well as before) MaryHutchinson, Maryher company;c6 Hutchinson has been living in the Rothschild house where John is, and as I have known her for ten years longer than John, she is likely to think that she has a prior claim on my time: besides, she is just as goosy as ever, and is likely to have her fashionable (pseudo-intellectual and sometimes somewhat parvenu) friends about. YouMurder in the CathedralHoellering film;g1TSE adapting for screen;a3 may be pleased to hear that the Film is not quite dead: MrHoellering, George M.TSE's fondness for;a2. Hoellering came to see me last week, and is coming again on Wednesday to run through the scenario with me. I shall have another shot at it – though I have other things to do which seem much more important to me – simply because Hoellering is such a nice man, and so well meaning, and there isn’t any other contemporary play about which would suit his purposes: and I could not bear to tell him that the film as an art form simply bores me.
IFabers, theas moviegoing companions;f7 go now and again to a film with the Fabers out of complaisance, and I do enjoy a good ‘documentary’; but I can’t take films any more seriously than detective stories – except that I can forget a detective story the moment I have finished it, while a film goes on for a long time filling one’s memory with scenes that I should prefer to forget – I always have the unpleasant feeling of having stored my mind with rubbish.
MyHale, Emilycorrespondence with TSE;w3constrained by war;g8 dear, I hope that you feel more serene – as I am beginning to in respect of the correspondence which we carried on under such great practical disadvantages. I am sure – and happy to have you say so in this letter – that the result should be a closer understanding and bond: andHale, Emilyrelationship with TSE;w9as perpetual progress and revelation;c1 surely, the important thing is that mutual understanding and sympathy should go on developing to the end of life, rather than that it should be at any moment perfect – whatever is really established cannot be lost. At moments like those, I am perhaps more acutely aware of my own dependence upon you, when the support seems temporarily to have disappeared – like those nightmares in which one is lost in a familiar house which has somehow rearranged itself into a different shape.
I wish that you could go somewhere is the South for the rest of the winter. I know how difficult anything of the sort must be under the present conditions: but is there no one you could be with (for I don’t think it is good to be quite alone except when one is busy) in a warmer climate. Oh dear.
1.GeorgeRylands, George ('Dadie') ‘Dadie’ Rylands (1902–99), literary scholar and theatre director, was from 1927 a Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. Early publications included Russet and Taffeta (verse, 1925), Poems (1931) and Words and Poetry (1928) – all published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press (for which he worked for six months in 1924). As director of the Marlowe Society, he became famous for his productions of plays by Shakespeare; he taught generations of talented students including Peter Hall, Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen; and in 1946 he became chairman of the Arts Theatre, Cambridge. He was appointed CH in 1987.
2.TSE to Rylands, 13 Jan. 1943: ‘ItRylands, George ('Dadie')TSE advises on directing Family Reunion;a2n is certainly enterprising of the A.D.C. to want to produce The Family Reunion and, of course, I am more than pleased that they should. But I don’t envy you the task because the structure of the play is very defective theatrically and I know that it will tax even your resources to get over the passages in which the audience will find that nothing at all is happening. The toughest bit from this point of view is the beginning of the second part. This is very bad dramatically because it starts all over again on preamble stuff which ought to have been cleared up in the first act. The most difficult individual part is that of the male protagonist. The women’s parts are better and I think enjoyable to act in but I don’t believe anybody will ever feel at ease in Harry’s role. However, if you are in for it you have all my sympathy and good wishes.’
3.St John Hutchinson, QC (b. 1884), barrister and politician, had died on 24 Oct. 1942.
4.MargaretBehrens, Margaret Elizabeth (née Davidson) Elizabeth Behrens, née Davidson (1885–1968), author of novels including In Masquerade (1930); Puck in Petticoats (1931); Miss Mackay (1932); Half a Loaf (1933).
11.JohnHayward, John Davy Hayward (1905–65), editor and critic: see Biographical Register.
3.GeorgeHoellering, George M. M. Hoellering (1898–1980), Austrian-born filmmaker and cinema manager: see Biographical Register.
3.MaryHutchinson, Mary Hutchinson (1889–1977), literary hostess and author: see Biographical Register.
1.GeorgeRylands, George ('Dadie') ‘Dadie’ Rylands (1902–99), literary scholar and theatre director, was from 1927 a Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. Early publications included Russet and Taffeta (verse, 1925), Poems (1931) and Words and Poetry (1928) – all published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press (for which he worked for six months in 1924). As director of the Marlowe Society, he became famous for his productions of plays by Shakespeare; he taught generations of talented students including Peter Hall, Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen; and in 1946 he became chairman of the Arts Theatre, Cambridge. He was appointed CH in 1987.