[No surviving envelope]

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

I have had no letter from you since last week; to-dayPerkins, Edith (EH's aunt);f8 a letter from Mrs. Perkins, by ordinary mail of the 30 December, toBowen, Henry S.;a1 tell me that Henry S. Rowen [sc. Bowen], apparently the son of a cousin of yours, may turn up in England.1 If he appears, I shall of course do the best I can for him. SheCresswell, Euphemia ('Effie');a2 also mentions having heard from Mrs. Creswell2 of theBrocklebank, Charlotte Carissima ('Cara')son killed in action;a5 death of the Brocklebanks’ boy, I presume in action: I remember him coming to dinner with them once to Stamford House, a boy of considerable savoir faire with older people. I wonder where the Creswells’ boy is: he was scooting about the pastures on his motor cycle, I think, the last time we went there. The country will suffer from having lost far too many only sons of such people.

TheSecond World Warprognostications as to its end;e2 war is at present in a phase in which one does not see the end so clearly as we had thought, and rather a state of tension awaiting the immense activity: we do not feel that we can settle down to anything, or make any plans of a private nature, or pay very close attention to those of a public nature, until we know what is to happen. This overshadows all one’s personal interests and pursuits almost as much as 1940 did, though in a different way. I'Johnson as Critic and Poet'being and not being written;a2 have to put my Johnson lectures in as good order as I think I can, before I deliver them in a fortnight hence: so'Kipling – The People’s Poet';a2 this coming weekend I shall try to do the short article on Kipling which is wanted for a periodical in Moscow. NextBooks Across the Seaexhibition;a7 week an event which I rather dread: ‘Books Across the Sea’ is to have an exhibition of ‘scrap books’ made during the war by American high-school children, to which they attach importance (I’m afraid they don’t interest me very much) and as President I must officiate at the opening: to open it myself would be comparatively easy, but they hope to get some royal personage to do it, and I shall have to receive etc. – a much less familiar ritual. I wish the whole of the next six months was over! I do hope you are well fed: I fear you do not do so well anywhere as I do in the country, with plenty of milk and eggs. All you have is oranges, and two weeks ago, suddenly, we all got three) I am afraid that my first thought was that they were not so juicy as the South African oranges we used to get. Mrs. Perkins said that at that time you were looking very well: I hope she will be able to say the same at Easter. And Wednesday is the first day of Lent: I shall try to get to church in Bloomsbury in the morning. I am feeling very Lenten this year.

Your loving
Tom.

1.Not traced.

2.Effie Cresswell, of Charingworth Manor, Chipping Campden.

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,
Bowen, Henry S.,
Brocklebank, Charlotte Carissima ('Cara'), Cheetham introduces to TSE, invites TSE to Nativity play, son killed in action, shares ancestors with TSE, suffers further family heartbreak, visited in Stratford-upon-Avon, news of her death, her death and inquest, provides inspiration for 'Celia',
see also Brocklebanks, the

2.CharlotteBrocklebank, Charlotte Carissima ('Cara') Carissima (‘Cara’) Brocklebank (1885–1948), only surviving daughter of Gen. Sir Bindon and Lady Blood, married in 1910 Lt.-Col. Richard Hugh Royds Brocklebank, DSO (1881–1965). They lived at 18 Hyde Park Square, London W.2, and at Alveston House, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire: see Biographical Register.

Cresswell, Euphemia ('Effie'),

4.Herbert PinkneyCresswell, Pinkney Creswell andCresswell, Euphemia ('Effie') his wife Euphemia – ‘Effie’ (a friend at Chipping Campden) – lived at Ardley House (now the Kings Hotel) before moving in 1934–5 to Charingworth Manor, a fine Tudor house (also now a hotel) about four miles east of Chipping Campden. Effie Cresswell liked to hold arty gatherings and tea parties for cultured visitors.

'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,
'Kipling – The People’s Poet',
Perkins, Edith (EH's aunt), her relationship to EH queried, to accompany EH to Scripps, asks TSE to dinner, at first Norton lecture, shares pew with TSE, accompanies TSE to Symphony Concert, in audience at Milton Academy, catches cold in Florence, in TSE's private opinion, TSE's occasional poem for, her relationship with EH analysed, dislikes Jeanette McPherrin, explains EH's breakdown to TSE, on the Harvard Murder, as Campden hostess, and TSE's wartime instructions to EH, gives lunch at American Women's Club, gives TSE balsam pillow, requests English edition of Cats, as horticulturalist, without Campden garden, compared to Irene Hale, gives TSE photograph of EH, attends Ada's funeral, reports on EH's Millbrook situation, pressed for ham and pineapple recipe, sight affected in one eye, gives lecture, sight failing, sight deteriorates in other eye, thanked for 1946 hospitality, gives to Books Across the Sea, according to EH, asks TSE to present slides to RHS, which TSE does, on EH and TSE's relationship, and Hidcote House, friendly with Marion, TSE pitches her book to publishers, depressed by the heat, somewhat recovered, approaching 80th, faced with husband's death, letter of condolence to, sent birthday poem, visited in Boston, has sciatica, reports on EH's dramatic activities, Miss Lavorgna on, in her old-age infirmity, suffers 'shock', sacks nurse, EH preserved from, sends funeral tribute to Cousin Will, and the Hale letters, nursing home sought for, moved into nursing home, where TSE writes to her, suffers stroke, deteriorating, relations with EH, her legacy to EH,
see also Perkinses, the
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,