[No surviving envelope]

T. S.Eliot
EmilyHale
TS
Faber & Faber Ltd
Letter 5.
7 February 1944
Dearest Emily,

IFaber, Geoffreydiscusses National Service on BBC;j5 shall have to go down stairs in a few minutes to listen to Geoffrey Faber on the wireless, talking about National Service for Youth;1 so I expect I shall not finish this letter until some time after dinner. I was very glad to get your letter of January 12: rather reserved and a bit obscure, about Millbrook, and not giving your full address: so I shall have either to mail this to Boston, or look up to see where you gave a fuller address – and looking through your letters to find anything particular does take time! However, so far, so good. I am glad that you like Miss Hodges, though whether she is the head of the college, or of the department, an equal or a superior, I have no idea, never having heard of her before. I will reserve my impressions of your impressions until I hear more about it; all I should like to know at present is that you are comfortable in lodgings, and get good and palatable food. I don’t like you having to take all meals at the college; it is tiring, and it makes wherever one lives seem just a shelter; and I don’t like your having to be about so early, but that I know is not unusual in America. IChristianityasceticism, discipline, rigour;a9gets TSE up before 7 o'clock;b2 never get up earlier than 7, and that only if I am going to church! SpeakingCheetham, Revd Ericrequests TSE's presence for Bishop of London;f6 of that, I have to go up to town again on Sunday this week: mostFisher, Geoffrey Francis, Bishop of London (later Archbishop of Canterbury);a1 tiresome, but Fr. Eric particularly begged me to be there, some time ago, as the Bishop of London is coming and he wants to put his best feet forward, my fellow-warden not being a very impressive figure. FortunatelyUniversity College of North Waleslectures drafted for;a3 I'Johnson as Critic and Poet'being and not being written;a2 have completed a draft of my two lectures for Bangor, so the loss of time is not so serious.

MyChurchill Club, TheWalt Whitman talk for;a1 evening with the Churchill Club (on'Walt Whitman and Modern Poetry';a3 Walt Whitman) went off well, I think: supper there first (not very good, and in a very hot and crowded room; the whole building very crowded[)]. Noble ladies running about, dressed in something between a uniform, a hospital nurse’s costume, and a housemaid’s, playing at being barmaids etc. A sort of social fringe around the large body of officers and privates of both sexes. There were much the same sort (indeed, some of the same men) whom I have met at the Chumbly Jumbly hostel in Portman Square. YouSpender, Stephenwhich he does in fireman's uniform;c7 would have been amused by Stephen Spender, as chairman, in his fireman’s uniform, looking taller and more youthful than ever. I think he was expecting ‘heckling’; but everything went, as my previous experience led me to expect, very peacefully and quietly and friendly [sic]. Anyway, that is positively my last public engagement until I go to Bangor, and I have not committed myself to anything after that.

I enclose a letter I have recently had. Surely this is your little lame friend Miss Josie Griffiths?2 If so, it is odd that she writes without referring to the Perkins’s or my visits to Camden [sic]; if it isn’t, then it is odd that she writes on the assumption that it is your Miss Griffiths, and asking about her brother. I dare say his wife was glad they had that house, when 1940 came; but the excellent white wine must all be gone by now!

I thought that you were to do dramatic work at Millbrook; you speak as if you were to do speech training as at Smith. If it is a very poor college (from what you say of the salary) I presume that the fees are low, and that the girls come from humble environments.

With all my love,
Tom.

1.Faber spoke on the BBC Home Service in a programme entitled ‘Questions for Today and Tomorrow’, broadcast on 7 Feb.: ‘“Still in their ’teens – National Service?”. Three points of view: Geoffrey Faber, Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Education, of the Conservative Party Central Committee for Post-War Reconstruction; G. Stanley Smith, Brigade Secretary of the Boys’ Brigade; Dr Edward Glover.’ See too ‘Persuasion or Compulsion? Three views on national service for boys and girls in their ’teens’, Listener, 17 Feb. 1944, 175–6, 189.

SeeFaber, GeoffreyTSE's wartime intimacy with;h6 too: ‘During the last war I saw Faber every week, at first sharing in the middle of the week the Fabers’ basement shelter, and later fire-watching with him at Russell Square; and I was privy to two of his wartime activities. […] The second was when he drafted the report on Secondary Schools as Chairman of a Committee appointed by the Minister of Education’ – TSE’s memorial tribute to Faber, The Times, 1 Apr. 1961: CProse 8, 453–5.

2.Josephine Griffiths was a member of a prominent Chipping Campden family; she lived at Bedfont House, on the south side of the High Street.

Cheetham, Revd Eric, TSE's rent to, as landlord at 9 Grenville Place, asks TSE to be churchwarden, to which TSE agrees, invited to Sweeney Agonistes, taken ill, offers prayers for EH's passage, his pageant for Mothers' Union, on London colds, given wine for Christmas, possible flatmate, pleased to welcome EH, advice in case of fire, unfolds tale of French holiday, and St. Stephen's wartime finances, remembers TSE's birthday, indifferent to rationing, during Blitz, paid to house TSE's books, starts lending library in tube, living in modern penthouse, TSE drafts testimonial letter for, hosts TSE in penthouse, his testimonial, requests TSE's presence for Bishop of London, by whom he is chastened, and Elvaston Place, exhausted by war, prevented from giving TSE customary birthday greeting, one of TSE's few intimates, TSE on, hounded by Time, and the Bishop of Tokyo, retires under doctor's orders, TSE's outgoing tribute and succession, apparently in Hong Kong, leaves affairs in a mess, insouciant letter to parishioners,

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.

Christianity, and human isolation, and modern economics, Ada on TSE's personal piety, scheme for 'Pro Fide' bookshop, among the Eliot family, and beauty, its sects like different clubs, Anglo-Catholicism, TSE's conversion to, which he dates to Eccleston Square meeting, Anglican Missal sought for EH, but unfortunately out of print, discussed at Boston Theological School, and the Petrine Claims, apostolic succession, over Roman Catholicism, as refuge from VHE, and the Reformation, asceticism, discipline, rigour, the necessity for, and TSE's daily exhortation, making and breaking habits, mastering emotions and passions, as salubrious, only remedy for a prurient culture, confession and communion, more possible during Harvard year, the case for unattainable ideals, in time of war, gets TSE up before 7 o'clock, hereditary with TSE, belief, and good poetry, faced with Second World War, and conversion, antidote to TSE's skepticism, Christendom, TSE ponders the decline of, TSE on his prominence within, its ruin, the Church Visible and Invisible, and TSE's war work, the Malabar Church, prospect of total reunion within, confession, helps to objectify sin, more dreaded than dentist, harder in the morning, death and afterlife, the struggle to prepare for, consoles TSE in life, and cremation, Requiem Mass, gives meaning to life, and what makes a desirable burial place, the nature of eternal life, divorce, unrecognised by Anglo-Catholic Church, which TSE regrets, in church law, would separate TSE from Church, evil, TSE's belief in, and moral percipience, guilt, and the New England conscience, hell, TSE's 1910 vision of, and damnation, according to TSE, liturgy, TSE's weekly minimum, Mass of the Pre-sanctified, Requiem Mass versus Mass of Good Friday, and whether to serve at Mass, Imposition of Ashes, at Christmas, High Mass over Mattins, aversion to Low Church Mattins, Roman service in Wayland, Tenebrae, in country parish church, as guest at Kelham, remarkable sermon, over Christmas, Tenebrae and Family Reunion, during Holy Week, Mass of Charles King and Martyr, love, loving one's neighbour, marriage, TSE's need for privacy within, mysticism and transcendence, interpenetration of souls, intimations of life's 'pattern', 'doubleness', arrived at through reconciliation, orthodoxy, only remedy for contemporary culture, and pagans, sets TSE at odds with modernity, necessarily trinitarian, 'Christian' defined, iniquities of liberal theology, and creed, authority, Transubstantiation, TSE disclaims 'self-centredness' in maintaining, politics, the Church and social change, how denomination maps onto, need for working-class priests, church leaders against totalitarianism and Nazism, Christianity versus Fascism and Communism, Papal Encyclical against Nazi Germany, the 'Dividend morality', Presbyterianism, TSE quips on the meanness of, Quakerism, resignation, reconciliation, peace, TSE's love allows for, 'peace that passeth all understanding', the struggle to maintain, following separation from VHE, retreat and solitude, EH at Senexet, the need for, a need increasing with age, and TSE's mother, Roman Catholicism, TSE's counter-factual denomination, Rome, sacraments, Holy Communion, marriage, sainthood, TSE's idea of, the paradoxes of, susceptible of different sins, sins, vices, faults, how to invigilate, the sense of sin, the sinner's condition, bound up with the virtues, as a way to virtue, TSE's self-appraisal, when humility shades into, when unselfishness shades into, among saints, proportionate to spiritual progress, daydreaming, despair, lust, pride, perfection-seeking pride, spiritual progress and direction, TSE's crisis of 1910–11, EH's crisis, versus automatism, TSE's sense of, towards self-knowledge, in EH's case, as personal regeneration, temptation, to action/busyness, the Church Year, Advent, Christmas, dreaded, happily over, TSE rebuked for bah-humbugging, church trumps family during, season of irreligion, thoughts of EH during, unsettling, fatiguing, in wartime, Easter preferred to, Ash Wednesday, Lent, season for meditation and reading, prompts thoughts of EH, Lady Day, Holy Week, its intensity, arduous, preserved from public engagements, exhausting but refreshing, excitingly austere, Easter, better observed than Christmas, missed through illness, Unitarianism, the Eliots' as against EH's, the prospect of spiritual revival within, as personified by TSE's grandfather, regards the Bible as literature, as against Catholicism, divides EH from TSE, and whether Jesus believed himself divine, according to Dr Perkins, in England as against America, over-dependent on preachers' personality, TSE's wish that EH convert from, outside TSE's definition of 'Christian', the issue of communion, baptism, impossibly various, virtues heavenly and capital, bound up with the vices, better reached by way of sin, charity, towards others, in Bubu, TSE's intentness on, delusions of, as against tolerance, chastity, celibacy, beneath humility, TSE lacks vocation for, faith, and doubt, hope, a duty, TSE's struggle for, humility, distinguished from humiliation, comes as relief, greatest of the virtues, propinquitous to humour, not an Eliot virtue, opposed to timidity, danger of pride in, is endless, TSE criticised for overdoing, theatre a lesson in, most difficult of the virtues, possessed by EH, possessed by EH to a fault, TSE compares himself to EH in, the paradox of, distinguished from inferiority, self-discovery teaches, possessed by Dr Perkins, patience, recommended to EH, its foundations, possessed by Uncle John, purity, distinguished from purification, temperance, with alcohol, beneath humility,
Churchill Club, The, Walt Whitman talk for, Milton talk for, Poe talk for,
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.

Fisher, Geoffrey Francis, Bishop of London (later Archbishop of Canterbury), makes poor first impression, compared to William Temple,
'Johnson as Critic and Poet', being and not being written, threatens to outgrow its occasion, as essay was lectured, described for EH, revisited with view to publication, revamped for Princeton, favoured by Eleanor Hinkley,
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.

University College of North Wales, TSE considers lecturing 'Development of Shakespeare's Verse' for, but subsequently prepares lectures on Dr Johnson, lectures drafted for, itinerary for visit to, final preparations for trip to, TSE's adventure to, photograph of TSE's visit,
'Walt Whitman and Modern Poetry',