[No surviving envelope]
I found your letter of May 1 awaiting me, of course, having cabled to you: I must now cable to say that this has arrived. The previous one was dated April 17. I was much relieved. First to answer questions: I did get your Christmas cable, and thought I had thanked you for it; I am sorry. I did not get another letter from Tryon. I was glad to know that the two I sent there were forwarded. IEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother)as curator of Eliotana;e9 have not time to write to Henry this week, so'Development of Shakespeare's Verse, The'bibliographic details of;b4 will you tell him that the two Shakespeare lectures were written to deliver at Edinburgh in, I think, 1938. I can’t remember on what occasion, but I think it was to some university society; anywayWilson, John Dover;a5, it was Dover Wilson who invited me. In 1941 I delivered them slightly altered, at Bristol, as lectures on a foundation the name of which I have forgotten. I am sorry to be so vague! I have always meant to expand them a bit, either to publish by themselves or in a volume of essays to do with poetry, for which not enough material has been collected. ButUniversity College of North WalesTSE considers lecturing 'Development of Shakespeare's Verse' for;a1 I am to deliver two literary lectures at Bangor next year; and perhaps that will give the necessary number of pages.
I am very glad that Peterborough did you so much good, and that you have put on weight. But it is rather staggering to hear that you are to have your hair cut. I shall hold my breath, but you might break the shock by having some sort of photograph which would help me to get used to it before seeing you again. It would seem that the short-haired coiffeur is just as much trouble to keep in order, if not more, than the long.
There is nothing particular for me to say about the educational situation: I merely wait for your news as you give it, and sympathise.
ISheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister)TSE's deathbed correspondence with;i8 fear indeed that Ada is getting weaker, though I had a lovely letter, in her own handwriting and perfectly legible, last week. No constitution can stand this strain very long; and I gather that she has a good deal of pain during the first part of the day. She is extremely courageous and serene. AsEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother)as curator of Eliotana;e9 for Henry and the Eliot collection (whichWare, Mary Leeher collection of glass flowers;d2 seems to become, like the glass flowers,1 something which every visitor is made to look at – FaberFaber, Geoffreyreturned from America;i9 was taken to see it – I am glad to say, by the way, that he is back safely, though I have not seen him yet) the feeling it gives me is almost absurdly poignant: when I think of the beautiful boy he was, and so much was expected of him, and consoling himself for his own disappointment in life by become [sc. becoming] his brother’s curator. This pain may seem uncalled for – he is domestically happy: but you know I can never bear to think of Henry without an ache of the heart. He was so much more handsome than I, too, though not so well built; and he has such charm.
ICowley House, OxfordTSE discusses South India at;a4 amReunion by Destruction: Reflections on a Scheme for Church Union in South India;a4 having a nomadic and tiring three weeks: last week one night in a lumpy bed at the austere monastery of Cowley in Oxford, to discuss South India; then two nights in town; then two nights in Shamley; thenCheetham, Revd Erichosts TSE in penthouse;f4 one night with Cheetham in his penthouse, where he prepared the meals himself, and gave me his bed, with a lumpy pillow. He has a Polish officer (bed and breakfast) as a P.G. PoorSt. Stephen's Church, Gloucester Roadvestry goings-on;a2 body (Father Cheetham I mean) he gets up at night and goes over to guard his church, as does his curate also, and to good ladies of the congregation, whenever there is an alert. TheCampbell, Henry Colville Montgomery, Bishop of Kensington (later Bishop of Guildford, eventually Bishop of London);a1 occasion was the visit to the church of the new Bishop of Kensington, to preach at Whitsun; and Fr. C. wanted his churchwarden to meet him. Now to London again (theFabers, theMinsted as substitute for nursing-home;f9 Fabers will now be there as usual) andMoot, The;d1 thenNiebuhr, Reinholdat the Moot;a6 toOldham, Joseph;e2 a weekend conference of Oldham’s to meet Reinhold Niebuhr, who I imagine will do all the talking; and next week (as I have no doubt told you) to Bury St. Edmunds to make my speech, andtravels, trips and plansTSE's 1943 New Forest holiday;f1;a4 then to the New Forest holiday. I shall want it. AndYeh, George;a1 tomorrowRoberts, Michael;b4 ISpender, Stephen;c2 have Michael Roberts and Stephen Spender to dinner to meet Dr. George Yeh of the Chinese Embassy, a nice hearty Americanised chink.2 He has been on my mind for some time.
Well, my dear, I was very glad to get a letter from you. IPerkins, Edith (EH's aunt);f4 shall try to write a little letter to Mrs. Perkins soon, as a seasonal expression of regret (no less acute this year than before) for not having Campden to look forward to. IGalitzi, Dr Christineasks TSE to communicate with imprisoned husband;c6 have written the permissible brief message to Christina Galitzi, for whom alas I can do nothing. But I hope that she will get her husband back before long. I wonder if they have any children.
1.TSE alludes to the collection of glass flowers (the Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants) donated by Mary Lee Ware to the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
2.GeorgeYeh, George Yeh (1903–81) – Yeh Kung-chao (Ye Gongchao) – son of a cultivated Cantonese family, gained an MA in Indo-European linguistics at Cambridge, after taking a first degree in the USA, where his gifts brought him to the attention of Robert Frost. From 1935 he taught in the Department of Western Languages and Literature at Peking University. After the overthrow by the Communists of Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang government in 1949, he became Minister of Foreign Affairs for the government of Nationalist China; and in 1958–61 he was Taiwanese Ambassador to Washington; later an adviser to President Chiang Kai-shek. He wrote several books on literature and culture, and won a number of medals and citations.
4.RevdCheetham, Revd Eric Eric Cheetham (1892–1957): vicar of St Stephen’s Church, Gloucester Road, London, 1929–56 – ‘a fine ecclesiastical showman’, as E. W. F. Tomlin dubbed him. TSE’s landlord and friend at presbytery-houses in S. Kensington, 1934–9. See Letters 7, 34–8.
3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: see Biographical Register.
11.GeoffreyFaber, Geoffrey Faber (1889–1961), publisher and poet: 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).
3.ReinholdNiebuhr, Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971), influential theologian, ethicist, philosopher, and polemical commentator on politics and public affairs: see Biographical Register.
8.JosephOldham, Joseph (‘Joe’) Houldsworth Oldham (1874–1969), missionary, adviser, organiser: see Biographical Register.
1.MichaelRoberts, Michael Roberts (1902–48), critic, editor, poet: 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.
12.Stephen SpenderSpender, Stephen (1909–95), poet and critic: see Biographical Register.
3.MaryWare, Mary Lee Lee Ware (1858–1937), independently wealthy Bostonian, friend and landlady of EH at 41 Brimmer Street: see Biographical Register.
4.JohnWilson, John Dover Dover Wilson (1881–1969), literary and textual scholar; Regius Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature, Edinburgh, 1935–45. Renowned as editor of the New Cambridge Shakespeare, 1921–66. His writings include The Essential Shakespeare (1932); The Fortunes of Falstaff (1943); and Shakespeare’s Happy Comedies (1962).
2.GeorgeYeh, George Yeh (1903–81) – Yeh Kung-chao (Ye Gongchao) – son of a cultivated Cantonese family, gained an MA in Indo-European linguistics at Cambridge, after taking a first degree in the USA, where his gifts brought him to the attention of Robert Frost. From 1935 he taught in the Department of Western Languages and Literature at Peking University. After the overthrow by the Communists of Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang government in 1949, he became Minister of Foreign Affairs for the government of Nationalist China; and in 1958–61 he was Taiwanese Ambassador to Washington; later an adviser to President Chiang Kai-shek. He wrote several books on literature and culture, and won a number of medals and citations.