[No surviving envelope]

T. S.Eliot
EmilyHale
TS
Shamley
Letter 44.
2 August 1943
Dearest Emily,

I did not write any letters last week. TheWatt, Billwhere TSE eventually visits;a5 weekend visit to Bill Watt in Cambridgeshire (a duty visit of once a year) left me very tired: I came down here on Monday for one night, to be sure, to get a change of clothes: but I found I had several immediate notes to write. The vexation of a weekend visit under present conditions is fourfold: first the fatigue of any extra moving about, second the complications from missing the laundry, third the interruption of private correspondence, and fourth, the interruption of any piece of work upon which I am engaged (howeverReunion by Destruction: Reflections on a Scheme for Church Union in South Indiaon its second draft;a6, I have finished my second draft of Church Union in South India – a subject which mystifies some of my friends, and upon which some consider that I have been wasting my time, but I don’t think so, and it strikes me, at the moment, as rather a good pamphlet – anywayLang, William Cosmo Gordon, Archbishop of Canterbury (later Baron Lang of Lambeth)blesses TSE's South India intervention;a5, it was executed under the benefit of Archbishop Lang’s blessing – youSheffields, theto receive TSE's South India pamphlet;c5Sheffield, Alfred Dwight ('Shef' or 'Sheff')Sheffields, theSheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister)Sheffields, the shall see it when printed, but I shall have to ask you, and Ada and Sheff too, to take expert opinion as to whether it was worth doing or not!) The fatigue of the weekend (which is rather complex in itself: instance, the fact that Watt, although he has called me by my first name for some years now, and although I have visited him before, speaks of me to his wife, in my presence, as ‘Mr. Eliot’ – they never seem quite at ease in each other’s company) was aggravated by the fatigue of the previous week – goingGaselee, Sir Stephenmemorial service;a6 to Cambridge for Gaselee’s Requiem was tiring, because the train was so late that I missed dinner in Hall and had to content myself with sandwiches; I had two committees in London the next afternoon, followedColefax, Lady Sibyl (née Halsey)gives dinner for the Wavells;a7 by the Colefax dinner for the Wavells. Not a very successful dinner, really: theSpender, Stephenat Lady Colefax's Wavell dinner;c3 company was too mixed – a duchess, several politicians, and Stephen Spender – and in the midst of this, the Wavell family (that is, Lady Wavell and the daughter) as a solid domestic block. I don’t feel that the Wavells have any great relish for society: heWavell, General Archibalddescribed for EH;a4 is a man I should like to have an opportunity of private conversation with, as he impresses me as very intelligent (though taciturn), cultivated, and a man of sound views, who I think is as good a choice for Viceroy as could be found at the present difficult time; and his wife, though not brilliant, seems earnest, independent and public-spirited. But nobody was able to come out very interestingly; the party lacked unity; and the situation had to be animated, as so many dinner parties do, by the reliable society comedian (you know the kind I mean) rising to the occasion with imitations of public men.

The immediate burden of the moment is a ‘message’ – the war multiplies ‘messages’ alarmingly – I'Message to Aguedal';a1 have just been asked to write ‘messages’ for a French paper published in Algiers, and for an old theatre to be re-opened in Richmond, Yorks. – butBooks Across the SeaTSE unwillingly president of;a1 the'Presidential Message to Books Across the Sea';a1 particular message is for the bulletin of ‘Books Across the Sea’, an Anglo-American organisation of which I am at present the unwilling President.1 I went to tea at their offices on Thursday – toStreet, Alicia;a1 meet theWarde, Beatrice (née Becker);a1 earnest and I should think quite efficient American women who run the English office2 – to try to learn a little more about it – as I have also to preside at the General Meeting, andFaber, Geoffrey;j2 at another meeting in honour of Harrap, Howard and Faber on their return from America.

There is no more news from you since you wrote last, but I do not expect letters to be quick – perhaps I should not expect them to be frequent – from Grand Manan. The first thing is Health – the second, Peace of Mind, much more difficult when you are called upon for so much patience – and the third, the possible job. ISecond World Warbombing of German cities;d9 find myself much depressed at the moment, by the necessity for bombing on this scale3 (perhaps it is partly the awareness of what a nightmare it would be to me) andPound, Ezraindicted for treason;c9 by the affaire Ezra Pound.4 IPound, Omarand EP's indictment;a5 have got to try to write a letter to his poor little boy: thank God he has left Charterhouse now, he can be more anonymous in the larger world.

I have longed especially this last week for a sight and sound of you.

Your loving
Tom.

1.See ‘Presidential message to Books Across the Sea’, CProse 6, 418–19.

2.AliciaStreet, Alicia Street, author and lecturer.

BeatriceWarde, Beatrice (née Becker) Warde, née Becker (1900–69), influential American scholar of typography; author; proponent of clarity in graphic design; publicity manager for the Monotype Corporation and editor of The Monotype Recorder and the Monotype Newsletter; associate of Eric Gill. Her works include an acclaimed essay on typography, ‘The Crystal Goblet’, which started out as a speech to the British Typographers’ Guild and has been widely reprinted. Founder and Vice-President of the cultural movement ‘Books Across the Sea’, which worked to secure a regular interchange of books between the USA and the UK during the wartime ban on the import and export of non-essential goods. TSE was presently to become chair of the formal organisation, which by 1944 had swopped up to 4,000 volumes between the two countries. See Warde, ‘Books Across the Sea: Ambassadors of good will’, The Times, 2 Jan. 1942, 5.

3.From 24 July to 2 Aug. Hamburg was the target of the most damaging series of attacks of the British and American strategic bombing campaign. Their scale was made obvious in publicity at the time, though TSE could not have known that more civilians died in Hamburg in these days than in the whole of the Blitz on Britain.

4.See ‘Notes in Brief’, The Times, 27 July 1943, 4: ‘Axis Broadcasters Indicted: Treason Charges in US: July 26, Indictments for treason were handed down by a Federal Grand Jury to-day against eight American citizens who, since the beginning of the war, had been broadcasting from Germany or Italy. The poet Ezra Pound is among them as the only Fascist propagandist, and others are Constance Drexel, Jane Anderson, Frederick Wilhelm Kaltenbach, Robert Henry Best, Edward Leo Delaney, and Max Oscar Otto Koischwitz. The Attorney-General, Mr Francis Biddle, announces that when apprehended these Americans will be tried “before a jury of their fellow citizens whom they are charged with betraying.”’

Books Across the Sea, TSE unwillingly president of, AGM, letter to The Times for, exhibition, reception for Beatrice Warde, The Times reports on, TSE trumpets in TES, 'Bridgebuilders', TLS reports on, and South Audley Street library, absorbed into English Speaking Union, final meeting of,
Colefax, Lady Sibyl (née Halsey), TSE's dislike for, dislike refreshed, prejudices TSE against Dorothy Wellesley, gives dinner for the Wavells, ill with 'broken head',

4.SibylColefax, Lady Sibyl (née Halsey), Lady Colefax (1874–1950), socialite and professional decorator; was married in 1901 to Sir Arthur Colefax, lawyer. John Hayward called her (New York Sun, 25 Aug. 1934) ‘perhaps the best, certainly the cleverest, hostess in London at the present time. As an impresario she is unequaled, but there is far too much circulation and hubbub at her parties to entitle her to be called a salonière.’ See Kirsty McLeod, A Passion for Friendship (1991); Siân Evans, Queen Bees: Six Brilliant and Extraordinary Hostesses Between the Wars (2016).

Faber, Geoffrey, made TSE's literary executor, described for EH, as friend, overawed by Joyce, recounts the Eliots' dinner-party, discusses international situation with TSE, his annual effort to diet, introduced to TSE by Whibley, favours TSE taking Norton Professorship, suggests garden-party for TSE, mislays key to Hale correspondence, writes to TSE about separation, which he helps TSE over, blesses Scotland tour with whisky, victim of Holmesian prank, favours 'The Archbishop Murder Case', Times articles on Newman, Russell Square proclaims his gentlemanly standards, forgives TSE and Morley's prank, as tennis-player, champion of Haig biography, social insecurities, and the Faber family fortune, advertises 'Pollicle Dogs and Jellicle Cats', at lavish lunch for Dukes, relieved that 'Work in Progress' progresses, and JDH, needs persuading over Nightwood, on Edward VIII's abdication, Old Buffer's Dinner for, wins at Monopoly, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, thrilled by complimentary tickets, The Family Reunion described to, in line to read Family Reunion, has mumps, composes Alcaics from sickbed, at TSE and JDH's dinner, shares EH's Family Reunion criticism, on TSE's dinner-party bearing, discusses F&F's wartime plans, on meeting Ralph Hodgson, asks TSE to stay on during war, takes TSE to Oxford, argues with Major-General Swinton, and Purchase Tax exertions, and Literary Society membership, TSE's wartime intimacy with, drops teeth on beach, offers criticisms of 'Rudyard Kipling', falsely promised Literary Society membership, but eventually elected, helps revise TSE's Classical Association address, reports to Conversative Education Committee, deputed to America on publishing business, returned from America, Ada too ill to see, discusses National Service on BBC, depended on for breakfast, as fire-watching companion, and TSE rearrange attic at 23 Russell Square, recommends blind masseuse to TSE, in nursing home, and the Spender–Campbell spat, on TSE's Order of Merit, approached for essay on TSE, seeks to protect TSE's serenity, as Captain Kidd, wins fancy-dress prize, TSE's trip to Spain with, and National Book League, receives knighthood, on TSE's paroxysmal tachycardia, dies, his death,
see also Fabers, the

11.GeoffreyFaber, Geoffrey Faber (1889–1961), publisher and poet: see Biographical Register.

Gaselee, Sir Stephen, at the Literary Society, possible wartime employer for TSE, memorial service,

4.SirGaselee, Sir Stephen Stephen Gaselee (1882–1943), librarian, bibliographer, classical scholar; Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge; Pepys Librarian, 1909–19; Librarian and Keeper of the Foreign Office from 1920; President of the Bibliographical Society, 1932; Hon. Librarian of the Athenaeum Club; President of the Classical Association, 1939; Fellow of the British Academy, 1939. Works include The Oxford Book of Medieval Latin Verse (1928); obituary in The Times, 17 June 1943, 7.

Lang, William Cosmo Gordon, Archbishop of Canterbury (later Baron Lang of Lambeth), non-committal benediction on Murder, petitioned over Purchase Tax, over which he proves industrious, blesses TSE's South India intervention, chairs TSE's Milton talk,
'Message to Aguedal',
Pound, Ezra, within Hulme's circle, at The Egoist, indebted to Harriet Weaver, epistolary style, on President Lowell, TSE recites for Boston audience, distinguished from Joyce and Lawrence, TSE's reasons for disliking, attacks After Strange Gods, as correspondent, needs pacification, and TSE's possible visit to Rapallo, recommended to NEW editorial committee, anecdotalised by Jane Heap, of TSE and David Jones's generation, his strange gift to Joyce recalled, delicacies of his ego, Morley halves burden of, lacks religion, his letters from Italy censored, one of TSE's 'group', indicted for treason, TSE on his indictment, his legal situation, correspondence between TSE and Bernard Shaw concerning, visited by TSE in Washington, defended by TSE in Poetry, Osbert Sitwell on, his treatment in hospital protested, his insanity, TSE's BBC broadcast on, The Pisan Cantos, TSE writes introduction for, TSE chairs evening devoted to, further efforts on behalf of, Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, The Literary Essays of Ezra Pound, 'The Seafarer',
see also Pounds, the

3.Ezra PoundPound, Ezra (1885–1972), American poet and critic: see Biographical Register.

Pound, Omar, invited to lunch at Shamley, TSE's impression of, his situation, his prospects, and EP's indictment, and wife call on TSE,

1.OmarPound, Omar Shakespear Pound (1926–2010), author, editor and poet; son of Ezra Pound and Dorothy Shakespear, he was born in Paris and brought up in his early years by his maternal grandmother, Olivia Shakespear; he met his father for the first time only in 1938. During 1940–2 he was a boarder at Charterhouse School, where TSE took a proactive avuncular interest in the progress and well-being of ‘the unfortunate Omar’: ‘I make a point of trying to see him about twice a quarter. The whole situation is difficult and I am afraid that the future is not going to be easy for him. I like the boy who at the present moment thinks that he would like to make hotel keeping his profession.’ On leaving school, Pound undertook to study hotel management and worked in a London hotel; but in 1945 he enlisted in the US Army and served terms in France and Germany. Subsequently he studied at Hamilton College, New York (his father’s alma mater); at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London; and at McGill University. Later he taught in Boston; at the American School of Tangier; at the Cambridgeshire School of Arts and Technology; and at Princeton. He brought out Arabic & Persian Poems (1970) and volumes of his own poetry, and was co-editor (with Philip Grover) of Wyndham Lewis: A Descriptive Bibliography (1978). Other editions include Ezra Pound and Dorothy Shakespear: Their Letters 1908–1914 (1984), and Ezra and Dorothy Pound: Letters in Captivity, 1945–1946, edited with Robert Spoo (1999).

'Presidential Message to Books Across the Sea',
Reunion by Destruction: Reflections on a Scheme for Church Union in South India, contemplated by TSE, suspended, on its second draft, sent to EH, for which TSE prepares her,
Second World War, the prospect of, F&F plans in the event of, Britain's preparations for, prognostications as to its outbreak, and The Family Reunion, and the policy of appeasement, and transatlantic tourism, evacuation imminent, TSE discusses its outbreak with Dutchman, TSE refrains from commenting on, TSE's thoughts on, its effect on TSE, the 'Winter War', the 'Phoney War', Molotov–Ribbentrop pact, rationing, evacuation, seems continuous with First World War, invasion of Poland, invasion of Denmark and Norway, Chamberlain's resignation, Italy's declaration of war, Dunkirk, The Blitz, Battle of Cape Matapan, Operation Barbarossa, Greece enters war, Pearl Harbor, the Pacific War, Libyan campaign, North African campaign, and TSE's decision to remain in England, in relation to the First, prospect of its end unsettles, and returning to London, bombing of German cities, its effect on TSE's work, prognostications as to its end, the Little Blitz, Operation Overlord, V-1 Cruise Missile strikes, Operation Market Garden, and continental privations, and post-war European prospects, The Battle of the Bulge, possibility of post-war pandemic, V-2 Bombs, concentration camps, Germany's surrender, VE Day, and post-war Anglo-American relations, VJ Day, atomic bomb, its long-term economic consequences,
Sheffields, the, TSE feels able to confide in, save TSE from homesickness, discuss marriage to VHE with TSE, Radcliffe Club paper rehearsed with, Norton Lectures practised on, source of TSE's happiness in Cambridge, Mass., too polite, and the Eliot family Randolph holiday, compared to Marion as confidants, their marriage analysed, on second Randolph family holiday, and TSE's view of FDR, sound on American politics, to receive TSE's South India pamphlet,
Spender, Stephen, described for EH, poems published by F&F, what TSE represents to, attacks After Strange Gods, his objections to After Strange Gods, and Sweeney rehearsal, and lunching young men generally, evening with JDH, Jennings and TSE, TSE chairs his 'free verse' talk, at the Woolfs with TSE and EH, describes club lunch with TSE, his first marriage, 'Eclipse of the Highbrow' controversy, introduces new wife Natasha, gives musical party, at Lady Colefax's Wavell dinner, part of British contingent at Norwegian dinner, chairs TSE's Whitman talk, which he does in fireman's uniform, at poetry reading to Free Hungarians, takes issue with Roy Campbell, exchanges conciliatory sonnets with TSE, object of Rowse's anger, his German sensibility, an innocent fool, encomium for TSE's 75th, 'Four Poems', The Temple, Trial of a Judge, 'Vienna',

12.Stephen SpenderSpender, Stephen (1909–95), poet and critic: see Biographical Register.

Street, Alicia,

2.AliciaStreet, Alicia Street, author and lecturer.

Warde, Beatrice (née Becker), TSE to meet, at reception in her honour, 'a spellbinder',

BeatriceWarde, Beatrice (née Becker) Warde, née Becker (1900–69), influential American scholar of typography; author; proponent of clarity in graphic design; publicity manager for the Monotype Corporation and editor of The Monotype Recorder and the Monotype Newsletter; associate of Eric Gill. Her works include an acclaimed essay on typography, ‘The Crystal Goblet’, which started out as a speech to the British Typographers’ Guild and has been widely reprinted. Founder and Vice-President of the cultural movement ‘Books Across the Sea’, which worked to secure a regular interchange of books between the USA and the UK during the wartime ban on the import and export of non-essential goods. TSE was presently to become chair of the formal organisation, which by 1944 had swopped up to 4,000 volumes between the two countries. See Warde, ‘Books Across the Sea: Ambassadors of good will’, The Times, 2 Jan. 1942, 5.

Watt, Bill, the Fabers' wartime lodger, TSE to visit, implores TSE to visit him in Cambridge, where TSE eventually visits,

3.BillWatt, Bill Watt, literary agent.

Wavell, General Archibald, met TSE at Winchester College, appointed to ABDA, Lady Colefax dinner for, described for EH, his one eye, dismissed as Viceroy of India, an intellectual, possible theatre-trip with, a 'pet', fond of Kipling, deserts TSE for golf, gossips with actresses, relays Cara Brocklebank's death,

5.GeneralWavell, General Archibald Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell (1883–1950), Commander-in-Chief Middle East in the early phase of WW2. He was later Commander-in-Chief in India and finally Viceroy of India until not long before Partition.