[No surviving envelope]
Letter 1.
IChrist Church, Shamley Greenmidwinter morning services at;a4 did not write at the last weekend – it was a short one, tiring because of tramping out to early before-daylight church two mornings in succession (Jan. 1 and Sunday) and I had a mass of Christmas letters to write (I enclose a letter from Mrs. Seaverns – I am very glad that I wrote to her first). IEliot, Theresa Garrett (TSE's sister-in-law);c5 have written to Theresa asEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother);i1 well as to Henry, who still seems to be in very poor health; ISheffield, Alfred Dwight ('Shef' or 'Sheff')shares tributes to Ada;b9 have another letter from Sheff (enclosing some tributes to Ada) which I ought to answer;1 and there are letters still of a more business nature (including letters of other people’s business still more than my own[)]. I am taking a tonic, but do not yet feel bursting with energy. This'Johnson as Critic and Poet'being and not being written;a2 weekend I have managed to put in three mornings and one afternoon (after tea) on Johnson; andMoot, The;d3 I am cutting a weekend with the ‘Moot’ next weekend, partly to avoid the fatigue, and partly because the matters to be discussed are not such as I am specially concerned with. TomorrowTandys, theaccompanied to Alice in Wonderland;b8 I have to give up the afternoon to the Tandy family – Mrs. T. and three children, one of them a god-daughter – who are up from Dorset for a few days; their father being immured with his secret duties, I must escort them to ‘Alice in Wonderland’, and give them lunch – after which I must get an early supper at the Russell Hotel. (ItFaber, Enid EleanorTSE dependent on for food;c1 is rather inconvenient when Enid Faber is not up on Tuesdays, and we have to get supper out, as one is supposed to leave a meal in the middle and rush back if there is an alert – butFaber, Richard ('Dick')entering Naval Cadet school;a7 she has the elder boy back for a week at home before going off to his Naval Cadet school, from which he will emerge a midshipman, having been a common seaman until now.)
I was very glad to get your letter of December 5, from Concord, with the pretty Christmas card, the Black Cat (some one told me they were unlucky in the States, though lucky here!) andHale, Emilyas teacher;w1appointed to post at Bennett Junior College, Millbrook;d4 some advance news about Millbrook. Everything that you say of it is reassuring: it is in the country, it is dramatic, and the epistolary acceuil friendly. I do not know what is the definition of a ‘Junior College’: perhaps you will tell me. I expect it will be February before I get a letter from you from there, so my satisfaction must be provisional until then. IAmericaNew Bedford, Massachusetts;f8EH's holidays in;a1 was relieved to hear that you propose a week in New Bedford, as you seem to find that restful. (WhatHinkley, Eleanor Holmes (TSE's first cousin);c9 is the matter with Eleanor? It sounds as if she was becoming prematurely senile from coddling herself. PenelopeNoyes, Penelope Barkerand her father;e3, I suppose, isNoyes, James Atkins;a5 as much confined by looking after her father: I had a letter from her which I have not yet answered). I fear that you will be very tired after the second, children’s play at Concord: your choice of play sounds pleasing and appropriate. I hope that the new job is not offered as only a temporary appointment, and that if it is satisfactory, and if nothing better turns up, you can stay there as long as you choose; because I do not suppose it is possible to show the best one can do in one term: you need to have the same girls longer, and establish a continuity.2
I don’t suppose that I shall have much of the sensational to report during this term: I propose to stick to Johnson and undertake as little else as possible until the end of March. Aftertravels, trips and plansTSE's 1944 trip to Edinburgh;f2;a1 that I might go to Edinburgh for a few days to open a Scottish-American House, but they may want somebody to open it sooner. The spring seems to depend very much upon the possible invasion operations: it is impossible to tell how they will affect either special engagements, or the ordinary routine of life.
ISheffield, Alfred Dwight ('Shef' or 'Sheff')reads 'credo' at Ada's funeral;c1 thoughtSheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister)Sheff's memorial tribute to;k3 the ‘credo’ – ‘The Person as a Member’ – which I believe was read at Ada’s funeral, a dreadful piece of jargon. It is evidently written by Sheff, and has the typical faults of his style – veryOldham, Josephhis style;e6 similar to that of Oldham and the Christian News Letter.
1.Letter not found.
2.TSEEnglandChipping Campden, Gloucestershire;e1treasured in TSE's memory;b2East Coker, Somerset
‘I have, of course, had news of you and Mrs. Perkins pretty regularly from Emily. I fear that the autumn, with two plays to produce in rapid succession, in a new place, and among new people, must have been pretty tiring for her; and while I am eager for news of the new appointment of which she informed me in a Christmas cable, I fear that starting anew, after a very short holiday, will be a great strain. I know that anything, within the limits of her strength, is better for her than inaction; but I shall feel happier when I know what the new place is like’ (Beinecke).
3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: see Biographical Register.
1.TSE was mistaken here. EnidFaber, Enid Eleanor Eleanor Faber (1901–95) was the daughter of Sir Henry Erle Richards (1861–1922), Fellow of All Souls College and Chichele Professor of International Law and Diplomacy at Oxford University, and Mary Isabel Butler (1868–1945).
5.EleanorHinkley, Eleanor Holmes (TSE's first cousin) Holmes Hinkley (1891–1971), playwright; TSE’s first cousin; daughter of Susan Heywood Stearns – TSE’s maternal aunt – and Holmes Hinkley: see Biographical Register.
6.JamesNoyes, James Atkins Atkins Noyes (1857–1945), mutual acquaintance in Cambridge, Mass., pursued library and genealogical work, 1895–1905; a great clubman. Father of EH’s friend Penelope Noyes.
12.PenelopeNoyes, Penelope Barker Barker Noyes (1891–1977), who was descended from settlers of the Plymouth Colony, lived in a historic colonial house (built in 1894 for her father James Atkins Noyes) at 1 Highland Street, Cambridge, MA. Unitarian. She was a close friend of EH.
8.JosephOldham, Joseph (‘Joe’) Houldsworth Oldham (1874–1969), missionary, adviser, organiser: 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).