[No surviving envelope]
Buckler’s Hard, Hants.
(only to next Monday).
Two letters have reached me, one from Russell Square and one from Shamley, since my arrival here. YourHale, Emilyholidays on Grand Manan;p5 letterAmericaLyndeborough, New Hampshire;f4visited by EH;a1 of May 19th, from Lyndeborough1 (which I never heard of before) was postmarked London June 29th – which so far is a record for Air Mail, I think. I am glad that I cabled, because I like to let you know when letters are not coming. Doubtless the quantity of letters sent in this way is enormous. I will bear in mind your hint about Western Union. The difference at this end is simply that cables by the other route can be sent from any post office; whereas for Western Union one has to go to the office in Northumberland Avenue; but I had been told that W.U. was always the quickest.
I was very glad to have some news. At the moment you are in Grand Manan – Idogs'Boerre' (Norwegian Elkhound);b7;d7 am sorry for the omission of Boerre, because you have had to be separated so much. I know that it will be difficult to make the most of the holiday, when the future from September is still quite dark: I do pray that something will turn up in time, and I admire your fortitude meanwhile. I was interested to hear of the wedding of Dorothy Gates, and glad that you could go. ItPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle)ailing;f3 sounds, from the way you speak, as if Dr. Perkins was unable to leave Boston at all: which must be trying for both of them in midsummer. ThankSheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister);j3 you also for your news of Ada, which always gives me more reality than I get from news of her from my other sources. SheffSheffield, Alfred Dwight ('Shef' or 'Sheff')faced with Ada's death;b5 now writes from time to time, which gives me the occasion to admire his own spirit as well as hers. I know that Ada has always expected him to outlive her, and has been most solicitous to prepare for his future: the presence of Mrs. Stell, and the prospect of her remaining with Sheff, give her great satisfaction. IEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother)as curator of Eliotana;e9 am grateful for your reminding me about a note for Henry on the Shakespeare lectures. … WhenGrierson, Sir Herbertin TSE's reckoning;a7 I spoke of Grierson as being ‘lonely’, I was not unmindful of his own follies – to put the best construction upon his behaviour: and I do not in any case altogether admire him – one feels, rather observes, a strain of coarseness, as there is, more patently, a strong element of irreligion. But he was, no doubt, a simple Orcadian peasant, with that tough Scotch power of getting on in the world with no advantages: and, finally, a great scholar of a type which is now not too common. His successor is a pygmy in comparison.
ICulford School, Bury St. EdmundsTSE's Prize Day address at;a1 finished up my busy period successfully, I think, with the visit to the school at Bury St. Edmunds. It is a fine building in a beautiful estate: ISkinner, John W.;a1 thought the headmaster an excellent man, superior to the heads of the other Methodist schools at which I have performed this function.2 IEnglandEnglish traditions;c4the English language;a9 talked to the boys about their obligation to the English language, and their duty to try to preserve it – a safe subject: and did rather better, from notes, than I usually do in trying to speak informally …3 TheEliot, Thomas Hopkinson;a2 night before, I had dined at the Ivy with a small party at which Tom Eliot, Sam Eliot’s son – IEliot, Revd Samuel Atkins, II (TSE's cousin);a2 mean, Sam Atkins Eliot’s son – was the guest of honour. He seems to be in charge of W.O.I. [sic] in London, as [sc. and] is a pleasant person enough, and I should think quite a good man for his job. My impression of him is rather vague, however: but I shall have to ask him to a meal on my return, and perhaps may form an opinion … YouFour Quartetsreviewed;a6 did not enclose any cutting; butGregory, Horacereviews Four Quartets;a1 the review by Horace Gregory wasBell, Bernard Iddingssends TSE Four Quartets cutting;b4 sent me by – of all people – Iddings Bell, who seems to be wishing to make friends again: he alienated himself, early in the war, from his friends here by his extravagant attitude over the war. It is a nice review. ISweeney, James Johnsonapparently writing book on Four Quartets;a2 believe that one J. J. Sweeney is writing a book to explain all the poems;4 but he is a responsible person, and I understand that the book is to be submitted to me for criticism before publication – I don’t want this known, as it would make me appear responsible for everything he says in it … IMorley, Frank VigorAda too ill to see;k8 believe Morley was in Boston once, and Ada was not well enough to see him (thatFaber, GeoffreyAda too ill to see;j1 was what happened to Faber, anyway). But I think he ought to try again. IMorleys, the;k2 don’t know what he is like now (Christina, I am sure, will never change) and I have not got a clear impression from Faber: nor perhaps would he be able to judge, as he had not the time to see much of him.
IHale, Emilycorrespondence with TSE;w3TSE equivocates on preserving;h6 think you are right, on the whole, about letters: I will go through the whole of them and try to execute your wishes – an occupation which produces more heartaches than happiness. ButThorps, theTSE against leaving letters to;d7 for goodness sake don’t write in future as if for publication, or for the perusal of future Willard Thorps! Far better than that, mark letters ‘please destroy’. So often, in published letters, one suspects that the writers were thinking of that future publication: and the moment one suspects that, pleasure in reading them disappears. My only motive for wishing my own preserved, is as a kind of monument to you. Otherwise they could well be spared; and I should, I think, be best pleased if only enough were kept to make that point, and make people with [sc. wish] there were more. But what eventually happens to them, the fire or the vault, is entirely for you to decide. And don’t let us write for anybody but ourselves. I am not sure whether I should not prefer all my prose writing to perish, if anything once printed ever could perish: I know I can never bear to read, after a lapse of time, any prose I have written – so immature, so badly written it is. Yet I go on writing. This letter will be a long time reaching you, in Grand Manan. TheEnglandBurford, Oxfordshire;d4too hallowed to revisit;a2 little poem, perhaps some day it will come: butEnglandCotswolds;e3sacred in TSE's memory;a1 I don’t think I want to go as near the Cotswolds as Burford, I have been there in your company. There are other parts of England, like this, which I can bear better in the waste sad time.5
1.Lyndeborough: a town in New Hampshire.
2.JohnSkinner, John W. W. Skinner (1890–1955), headmaster of Culford School, Bury St Edmunds, 1924–51.
3.See too TSE to Hayward, 12 July 1943: ‘The prize giving at the swell Methodist school at Bury, by the way, went off I think rather better than usual, aided by a scarlet gown. One thing I notice about Methodists is an instinctive segregation of the sexes. I was given a formal (cold) lunch beforehand – governors of the school, the Mayor of Bury, etc. and my end of the table was entirely men: even for coffee afterwards, and at tea, the women huddle together in an oppressed kind of way in a corner.’
4.JamesSweeney, James Johnson Johnson Sweeney (1900–86), museum curator and writer on modern art; Curator of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1935–45; Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1952–60. Sweeney wrote ‘East Coker: A Reading’, Southern Review 6 (Spring 1941), 771–91 – an essay that TSE enjoyed – and ‘Little Gidding: Introductory to a Reading’, Poetry 62 (July 1943), 214–23. He did not complete a book-length study of TSE’s works.
5.Burnt Norton V, 172–8:
Sudden in a shaft of sunlight
Even while the dust moves
There rises the hidden laughter
Of children in the foliage
Quick now, here, now, always –
Ridiculous the waste sad time
Stretching before and after.
3.BernardBell, Bernard Iddings Iddings Bell, DD (1886–1958), American Episcopal priest, author and cultural commentator; Warden of Bard College, 1919–33. In his last years he was made Canon of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, Chicago, and a William Vaughn Lecturer at the University of Chicago.
3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: see Biographical Register.
1.ThomasEliot, Thomas Hopkinson H. Eliot (1907–91), son of Samuel Atkins Eliot (1862–1950); lawyer, politician, academic and author. Educated at Harvard, Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and the Harvard Law School, he practised as a lawyer from 1933 (also lecturing on Government at Harvard, 1937–8). He was a Democratic member of Congress, 1941–Jan. 1943. In 1943 he became Director of the British Division, Office of War Information in London (where he was also a special assistant to the U.S. Ambassador); and in 1944 he did further war service with the Office of Strategic Services. For five years after the war, he was in practice as a lawyer in Boston, before taking up an appointment as Professor of Political Science at Washington University, St Louis. After a period as Professor of Constitutional Law, 1958–61, he became Chancellor of Washington University, 1962–71; and he served on various government bodies.
11.GeoffreyFaber, Geoffrey Faber (1889–1961), publisher and poet: see Biographical Register.
15.SirGrierson, Sir Herbert Herbert Grierson (1866–1960), Knight Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature at Edinburgh University, was elected Rector in 1936; knighted in 1936; celebrated for his edition of The Poems of John Donne (2 vols., 1912) and Metaphysical Lyrics and Poems of the Seventeenth Century (1921) – which TSE reviewed in the TLS, 21 Oct. 1921. TSE’s address was delivered on Fri. 29 Oct.
4.FrankMorley, Frank Vigor Vigor Morley (1899–1980), American publisher and author; a founding editor of F&F, 1929–39: see Biographical Register.
3.DrPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle) John Carroll Perkins (1862–1950), Minister of King’s Chapel, Boston: 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.
8.AlfredSheffield, Alfred Dwight ('Shef' or 'Sheff') Dwight Sheffield (1871–1961) – ‘Shef’ or ‘Sheff’ – husband of TSE’s eldest sister, taught English at University School, Cleveland, Ohio, and was an English instructor, later Professor, of Group Work at Wellesley College. His publications include Lectures on the Harvard Classics: Confucianism (1909) and Grammar and Thinking: a study of the working conceptions in syntax (1912).
2.JohnSkinner, John W. W. Skinner (1890–1955), headmaster of Culford School, Bury St Edmunds, 1924–51.
4.JamesSweeney, James Johnson Johnson Sweeney (1900–86), museum curator and writer on modern art; Curator of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1935–45; Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1952–60. Sweeney wrote ‘East Coker: A Reading’, Southern Review 6 (Spring 1941), 771–91 – an essay that TSE enjoyed – and ‘Little Gidding: Introductory to a Reading’, Poetry 62 (July 1943), 214–23. He did not complete a book-length study of TSE’s works.