[c/o Perkins, 90 Commonwealth Ave., Boston]
Letter 36.
Ittravels, trips and plansTSE's abortive 1943 Iceland mission;e9;a3 is just as well that I asked you not to mention to anyone my projected voyage, as the fixture has now been cancelled. It proved that the whole expedition might take considerably [longer] than they had given me to understand: more time than I was prepared to give to it, though had I known that, long enough in advance, I might have been willing to make my arrangements accordingly. But as it is, I have a meeting in Oxford on the 15th June, andCulford School, Bury St. EdmundsTSE's Prize Day address at;a1 my engagement to give the Prize Day Address at the Methodist School near Ipswich, etc. It is all rather annoying, as the negotiations took considerable time, and everything else has been rather in suspense, and I had taken the trouble to write out my address to the Natives: but I have made my complaints in the proper quarter, and I trust that if and when a similar proposal arises, they will assure themselves, and me, about the travel arrangements in good time.
No letter from you this week: nothingEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother);h3 but a bulky letter addressed by Theresa, which proved to contain only a translation of a German poem, from somebody who had asked them to send it to me, and a short note from Henry explaining it. There was no news, except to say that you were going to see Ada; but as the letter came by ordinary post, it refers to a visit of which you have already told me. I keep thinking about your chances of a position, and your straitened circumstances, and everything unsatisfactory and unsettled, and I can do nothing about it. Itravels, trips and plansTSE's 1943 New Forest holiday;f1;a2 shall take my holiday in the New Forest after all, but later on: towards the end of June. IFabers, the1943 Minsted summer stay;f8 may also go down to the Fabers, in July or August, and give a rather feeble hand with the harvesting; but the point of going to the New Forest is to be completely alone. It is true that I am alone now while in London (alone in the flat, of course there are always other people in the building) but I see a good many people during the day, and usually dine with someone at least one of the evenings. LastReading UniversityTSE's Humanities Club lecture;a1 week was pretty tiring, ending'Poetical and Prosaic Use of Words, The';a4 with the night in Reading. That was quite pleasant in itself, and the undergraduates were very agreeable; butSt. Anne's Church House, SohoTSE chairs talk at;a3 the previous night I had had to take the chair at a lecture at the new religious centre at St. Anne’s Soho; and I have decided that taking the chair is more tiring than lecturing. For one thing, you have to listen to the lecture, so as to make the appropriate remarks afterwards; and when you have a poor lecturer, and the wrong audience, and the responsibility for keeping going some semblance or [sc. of] a discussion afterwards, it is really very fatiguing. This has also meant only two days in the country this week: I shall come back on Thursday, and not work very hard, this week: and the country is delightful now. I am beginning to feel the need of a rest.
TheSt. Stephen's Church, Gloucester Roadvestry goings-on;a2 project for a testimonial to Cheetham on his 25th anniversary has led to complications, and discussion and telephoning with a Mrs. Raymond, who is in charge of it. They want it done one way, and he wants it another; and I don’t think the two churchwardens see eye to eye (the other is a lower middle class business man, disliked by the upper middle class part of the congregation, and is aggressive, touchy, and uncertain of himself – but I want to keep the peace with him, as in these times we should both be difficult to replace!) I try to avoid being drawn into this parochial tangle.
Whom did I see at the meeting at St. Anne’s House but Miss Kermode, who introduced herself. I hadn’t recognised her, but the moment she mentioned her peculiar name I was able to show that I remembered her quite well. ShePerkinses, the;k7 sent affectionate greetings to you and the Perkins’s; and reported no change from Campden except what you know of – I told her that I had had no heart to visit the place during the war. I did not have time to interrogate her about the other inhabitants.
IGalitzi, Dr Christineasks TSE to communicate with imprisoned husband;c6 have just had a Red Cross Letter from Christine Galitzi, from Bucharest! She asks me to write to her husband, the General Constantin Bratesco [sic], to tell him that she hopes to see him soon.1 As she gives no address, beyond saying that he was taken prisoner at Stalingrad, I have doubts as to whether any letter will ever reach him; and I have also to find out whether it is possible to communicate, and whether it is even proper to try to communicate, with an enemy who is a prisoner of the Russians. I can at least reply to her, however; though I imagine these letters take a very long time.
1.ChristineGalitzi, Dr Christineher marriage;c7n Galitzi, who had been a friend of EH at Scripps College, had married a Romanian military officer named Constantin Bratescu (1892–1971). After a period as Romania’s propaganda minister, Bratescu served as a major-general in command of the 1st Cavalry Division, fighting as German allies on the Eastern Front from the start of Operation Barbarossa to the Battle of Stalingrad. Stalingrad was a catastrophic defeat for the Romanian forces as well as the Germans; Bratescu was taken prisoner and held captive in the Soviet Union, 1943–8.
3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: see Biographical Register.
1.DrGalitzi, Dr Christine Christine Galitzi (b. 1899), Assistant Professor of French and Sociology, Scripps College. Born in Greece and educated in Romania, and at the Sorbonne and Columbia University, New York, she was author of Romanians in the USA: A Study of Assimilation among the Romanians in the USA (New York, 1968), as well as authoritative articles in the journal Sociologie româneascu. In 1938–9 she was to be secretary of the committee for the 14th International Congress of Sociology due to be held in Bucharest. Her husband (date of marriage unknown) was to be a Romanian military officer named Constantin Bratescu (1892–1971).