[No surviving envelope]

T. S.Eliot
EmilyHale
TS
Faber & Faber Ltd
Letter 8.
28 February 1944
Dearest Emily,

I have no letter from you to which to reply, butPerkins, Edith (EH's aunt)reports on EH's Millbrook situation;f9 received this week a letter in which Mrs. Perkins had very kindly copied out a long passage of a letter from you, giving a much fuller and indeed livelier description of your new surroundings than any with which you have favoured me so far.1 While in some respects the account is very satisfactory, I do not like your having to live so far from the school – though indeed it is worth it for the sake of some privacy – as it must involve a great deal of walking in the course of the day. Nor do the surroundings in which you have to take your meals sound very conducive to good digestion. I think it is always a strain to be among people who are eating very fast; still more so among people who enter at different times (asEliot Houseits chaotic mealtimes;b9 at Eliot House) so that there is a perpetual coming and going; and I should not be surprised even if the girls were allowed to smoke in the dining hall. The mass-produced food also, with the vegetables plumped down in little canary baths, was very unappetising; and I fear that is what prevails everywhere. I expect that the scenery is pleasing: IAmericaPittsfield, Massachusetts;g7surrounding countryside;a1 was once met at Pittsfield (I think) andVassar CollegeTSE remembers his journey to;a7 motored to Vassar, and some of the country was delightful, though, as I remember, it became duller as one penetrated into New York state. Idogs'Boerre' (Norwegian Elkhound);b7;d9 wish that it might be possible for you to have Boerre with you, and should like information on this point.

ThisSecond World Warthe Little Blitz;e3 last week in London was rather disturbed, as you may have read in your newspaper; but the modern fashion is not for all-night raids, so, if they come early enough, one can usually get a night’s sleep afterwards.2 IUniversity College of North Walesitinerary for visit to;a4 shall be in town only two nights during the week, returning on Sunday next for a night, in order to take an early train to Bangor, where I arrive at 5.30 on Monday, and lecture at 8. I return to town, I expect, on the Wednesday, and shall probably come back to Shamley on Thursday. After that, I know not what task will next turn up; butHallett, Monsignor Philipasks TSE to reprise Johnson lectures;a3 theSt. John's Catholic Seminary, Wonershand 'Johnson as Critic and Poet';a1 principal of the local Roman seminary here, a Monsignor Hallett,3 has got wind of these lectures, and wants me to deliver them again to some of his pupils. I can regard that as a Lenten penance. INorwood, Sir Cyril;a1 have also, onBooks Across the Seaexhibition;a7 Thursday, to introduce Sir Cyril Norwood (a prominent educator)4 who will open an exhibition, given by ‘Books Across the Sea’, of American children’s scrap-books, so called: I regard this, however, with equanimity, as the energetic ladies who run it had aimed at Royalty, and I have no previous experience in introducing princesses.

I think the following is rather amusing. LastJunior American Officer's Clubwhere TSE converses about TSE;a1 week I lunched with a young man at the Junior American Officer’s Club. It was rather crowded in the dining room, so we had to share a table with a couple of other young officers, one of whom looked lively and intelligent and evidently took an interest in our conversation. HeOld Vic, TheHamlet starring Robert Helpmann at;b9 eventually chipped in; weHelpmann, Robertas Hamlet;a1 got on to the subject of Robert Helpmann’s Hamlet, which I criticised rather severely, as showing all the faults of a ballet dancer trying to be an actor. Our unknown acquaintance said: ‘but don’t [you] remember what T. S. Eliot said about the ballet dancer being the great hope for the drama?’5 I didn’t, as a matter of fact; but I said, after recovering my self-possession: ‘Well, that was a long time ago, and he hadn’t seen Helpman [sic].’ ThisPound, Ezraindicted for treason;c9 passed off, but later we got on to the subject of Ezra Pound and what should be done with him after the war, and he said: ‘What I think is that T. S. Eliot should support him’. When we left, my host introduced himself and me; and I have never known a young man blush more beautifully: if it had been on the stage you could have seen it through his make-up. I hope I shall not meet him again.

This is a Parker pen which I have just received from a lady in America who says she met me at a party last year and promised to send a pen. It is very stiff yet.

Your loving
Tom.

1.This letter from Edith Perkins has not been traced.

2.The German Air Force mounted a series of small-scale night raids on London 18–25 Feb. 1944; these are sometimes known as the Little Blitz.

3.Monsignor Philip E. Hallet (1884–1948).

4.SirNorwood, Sir Cyril Cyril Norwood (1875–1956), educationalist; Head of Bristol Grammar School, 1906–16; Master of Marlborough College, 1917–25; Headmaster of Harrow, 1926–34; President of St John’s College, Oxford, 1934–46. Norwood headed the Board of Education Committee of the Secondary School Examinations Council, which produced Curriculum and Examinations in Secondary Schools (1941); and in 1943 the Norwood Report on secondary education provided for the separation of secondary schools in England and Wales into grammar, technical and secondary modern.

5.‘Two years ago M. Diaghileff’s ballet arrived, the first Russian dancers since the war: we greeted the Good-humoured Ladies, and the Boutique Fantasque and the Three-Cornered Hat, as the dawn of an art of the theatre. And although there has been nothing since that could be called a further development, the ballet will probably be one of the influences forming a new drama, if a new drama ever comes’ (‘London Letter’, The Dial 71 [Aug. 1921], 213–17: CProse 2, 363.

America, TSE on not returning in 1915, and TSE as transatlantic cultural conduit, dependence on Europe, TSE's sense of deracination from, and the Great Depression, TSE a self-styled 'Missourian', as depicted in Henry Eliot's Rumble Murders, its national coherence questioned, its religious and educational future, versus Canadian and colonial society, where age is not antiquity, drinks Scotland's whisky, and FDR's example to England, underrates Europe's influence on England, redeemed by experience with G. I.'s, TSE nervous at readjusting to, and post-war cost of living, more alien to TSE post-war, its glories, landscape, cheap shoes, its horrors, Hollywood, climate, lack of tea, overheated trains, over-social clubs, overheating in general, perplexities of dress code, food, especially salad-dressing, New England Gothic, earthquakes, heat, the whistle of its locomotives, 'Easter holidays' not including Easter, the cut of American shirts, television, Andover, Massachusetts, EH moves to, Ann Arbor, Michigan, TSE on visiting, Augusta, Maine, EH stops in, Baltimore, Maryland, and TSE's niece, TSE engaged to lecture in, TSE on visiting, Bangor, Maine, EH visits, Bay of Fundy, EH sailing in, Bedford, Massachusetts, its Stearns connections, Boston, Massachusetts, TSE tries to recollect society there, its influence on TSE, its Museum collection remembered, inspires homesickness, TSE and EH's experience of contrasted, described by Maclagan, suspected of dissipating EH's energies, EH's loneliness in, Scripps as EH's release from, possibly conducive to TSE's spiritual development, restores TSE's health, its society, TSE's relations preponderate, TSE's happiness in, as a substitute for EH's company, TSE's celebrity in, if TSE were there in EH's company, its theatregoing public, The Times on, on Labour Day, Brunswick, Maine, TSE to lecture in, TSE on visiting, California, as imagined by TSE, TSE's wish to visit, EH suggests trip to Yosemite, swimming in the Pacific, horrifies TSE, TSE finds soulless, land of earthquakes, TSE dreads its effect on EH, Wales's resemblance to, as inferno, and Californians, surfeit of oranges and films in, TSE's delight at EH leaving, land of kidnappings, Aldous Huxley seconds TSE's horror, the lesser of two evils, Cannes reminiscent of, TSE masters dislike of, land of monstrous churches, TSE regrets EH leaving, winterless, its southern suburbs like Cape Town, land of fabricated antiquities, Cambridge, Massachusetts, TSE's student days in, socially similar to Bloomsbury, TSE lonely there but for Ada, TSE's happiness in, exhausting, EH's 'group' in, road safety in, Casco Bay, Maine, TSE remembers, Castine, Maine, EH holidays in, Cataumet, Massachusetts, EH holidays in, Chicago, Illinois, EH visits, reportedly bankrupt, TSE on, TSE takes up lectureship in, its climate, land of fabricated antiquities, Chocurua, New Hampshire, EH stays in, Concord, Massachusetts, EH's househunting in, EH moves from, Connecticut, its countryside, and Boerre, TSE's end-of-tour stay in, Dorset, Vermont, EH holidays in, and the Dorset Players, Elizabeth, New Jersey, TSE on visiting, Farmington, Connecticut, place of EH's schooling, which TSE passes by, EH holidays in, Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, EH recuperates in, Gerrish Island, Maine, TSE revisits, Hollywood, perceived debauchery of its movies, TSE's dream of walk-on part, condemned by TSE to destruction, TSE trusts Murder will be safe from, Iowa City, Iowa, TSE invited to, Jonesport, Maine, remembered, Kittery, Maine, described, Lexington, Massachusetts, and the Stearns family home, Lyndeborough, New Hampshire, visited by EH, Madison, Wisconsin, Aurelia Bolliger hails from, Ralph Hodgson sails for, EH summers in, as conceived by TSE, who eventually visits, Maine, its coast remembered by TSE, TSE recalls swimming off, Minneapolis, on EH's 1952 itinerary, TSE lectures in, New Bedford, Massachusetts, EH's holidays in, TSE's family ties to, New England, and Unitarianism, more real to TSE than England, TSE homesick for, in TSE's holiday plans, architecturally, compared to California, and the New England conscience, TSE and EH's common inheritance, springless, TSE remembers returning from childhood holidays in, its countryside distinguished, and The Dry Salvages, New York (N.Y.C.), TSE's visits to, TSE encouraged to write play for, prospect of visiting appals TSE, as cultural influence, New York theatres, Newburyport, Maine, delights TSE, Northampton, Massachusetts, TSE on, EH settles in, TSE's 1936 visit to, autumn weather in, its spiritual atmosphere, EH moves house within, its elms, the Perkinses descend on, Aunt Irene visits, Boerre's imagined life in, TSE on hypothetical residence in, EH returns to, Peterborough, New Hampshire, visited by EH, TSE's vision of life at, Petersham, Massachusetts, EH holidays in, TSE visits with the Perkinses, EH spends birthday in, Edith Perkins gives lecture at, the Perkinses cease to visit, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, TSE on, and TSE's private Barnes Foundation tour, Independence Hall, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, surrounding countryside, Portsmouth, Maine, delights TSE, Randolph, New Hampshire, 1933 Eliot family holiday in, the Eliot siblings return to, Seattle, Washington State, EH summers in, EH's situation at, TSE prefers to California, EH repairs to post-Christmas, EH visits on 1952 tour, EH returns to, Sebasco, Maine, EH visits, South, the, TSE's first taste of, TSE's prejudices concerning, St. Louis, Missouri, TSE's childhood in, TSE's homesickness for, TSE styling himself a 'Missourian', possible destination for TSE's ashes, resting-place of TSE's parents, TSE on his return to, the Mississippi, compared to TSE's memory, TSE again revisits, TSE takes EVE to, St. Paul, Minnesota, TSE on visiting, the Furness house in, Tryon, North Carolina, EH's interest in, EH staying in, Virginia, scene of David Garnett's escapade, and the Page-Barbour Lectures, TSE on visiting, and the South, Washington, Connecticut, EH recuperates in, West Rindge, New Hampshire, EH holidays at, White Mountains, New Hampshire, possible TSE and EH excursion to, Woods Hole, Falmouth, Massachusetts, TSE and EH arrange holiday at, TSE and EH's holiday in recalled, and The Dry Salvages, TSE invited to, EH and TSE's 1947 stay in, EH learns of TSE's death at,
see also American Presidential Election
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,
dogs, TSE imagines himself as EH's dog, Pollicle, endear Hodgson to TSE, EH fond of, TSE wishes to give EH, TSE enthuses over with Ambassador Stimson's wife, death of Lord Lisburne's gun-dog, wish to buy EH dog reaffirmed, James Thurber's dog, wish to buy EH dog develops, TSE's wish that EH choose dog for him, of Shamley Wood, Aberdeen Terrier, belonging to Gerald Graham, TSE against, Alsatian, bites F&F sales manager in Cheltenham, Blue Bedlington Terrier, TSE wishes to bring EH, related to the Kerry Blue, TSE fantasises with Hodgson about breeding, TSE wishes EH might have, 'Boerre' (Norwegian Elkhound), travels to America, described, and right-hand traffic, TSE receives photo of, affords EH exercise, envied by TSE, scourge of Northampton, cuts foot, when chasing squirrel, suspected attempt to abduct, 'disorderly', 'cantankerous', taking unaccompanied exercise, decorated at dog-show, goes missing, not taken to Maine, EH decides to give up, poignant photograph of, dies, Bull Terrier, Ralph Hodgson's 'Picky' bites cat, home found for 'Picky', Hodgson fantasises with TSE about breeding, Dachshund, among TSE's preferred short-legged breeds, Hope Mirrlees's 'Mary', elkhound, belonging to Mrs Eames, as breed for EH, Jack Russell, among TSE's preferred short-legged breeds, possible replacement for Boerre, Kerry Blue, related to Blue Bedlington Terrier, at Army and Navy stores, Labrador, the Morleys' eight puppies, the Morleys', Pekingese, TSE averse to, belonging to Mrs Behrens, 'Polly' (the Eliots' Yorkshire Terrier), falls off roof, taken to have wound dressed, barks at Hungarian language, Poodle, as breed for EH, 'Rag Doll' (Scottish Terrier), travels to Grand Manan, TSE receives photo of, EH gives up, Samoyed, considered for EH, spaniel, belonging to the Fabers, Staffordshire Terrier, Hodgson advises Miss Wilberforce on,
Eliot House, TSE offered suite in, possesses telephone, TSE offered more peaceful suite in, oppressively luxurious compared to Oxbridge, TSE moved to B-11, TSE takes up residence in, its library, conspicuous lack of teapots, TSE suffers company over breakfast, TSE's compeers at, TSE's tea-parties in, obscene limericks over dinner at, TSE reads poetry to, TSE's cello-playing neighbour, repository for Eliotana, its chaotic mealtimes, noisy,
Hallett, Monsignor Philip, plays chess with TSE, asks TSE to reprise Johnson lectures,

3.MonsignorHallett, Monsignor Philip Philip Hallett: rector (since 1924) of St John’s Seminary, Wonersh, Surrey.

Helpmann, Robert, as Hamlet, revives Murder at Old Vic,

2.RobertHelpmann, Robert Helpmann (né Helpman; 1909–86), Australian ballet dancer and actor, director and choreographer, joined the Vic–Wells Ballet in London under its creator, Ninette de Valois, in 1932. In Feb. 1944 he starred in an Old Vic production of Hamlet, directed by Tyrone Guthrie (1900–71) and Michael Benthall (1919–74); he alternated the title role with Paul Scofield (1922–2008).

Junior American Officer's Club, where TSE converses about TSE,
Norwood, Sir Cyril, gives feeble speech at exhibition,

4.SirNorwood, Sir Cyril Cyril Norwood (1875–1956), educationalist; Head of Bristol Grammar School, 1906–16; Master of Marlborough College, 1917–25; Headmaster of Harrow, 1926–34; President of St John’s College, Oxford, 1934–46. Norwood headed the Board of Education Committee of the Secondary School Examinations Council, which produced Curriculum and Examinations in Secondary Schools (1941); and in 1943 the Norwood Report on secondary education provided for the separation of secondary schools in England and Wales into grammar, technical and secondary modern.

Old Vic, The, relationship to Sadler's Wells, presents Laughton's Macbeth, presents Othello, presents Henry IV, Part II, presents The Witch of Edmonton, Olivier's (complete) Hamlet, presents Murder, Guthrie's Measure for Measure, Emlyn Williams's Richard III, Alec Guinness's Hamlet, considers Family Reunion, presents Midsummer Night's Dream, TSE's fellow air-warden involved with, Hamlet starring Robert Helpmann at, engages Martin Browne to produce Coriolanus, Wolfit's Tamburlaine, wants to revive Murder, to produce The Confidential Clerk,
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
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.

St. John's Catholic Seminary, Wonersh, and 'Johnson as Critic and Poet',
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,
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,
Vassar College, and Sweeney Agonistes, TSE's visit remembered and reported, and Hallie Flanagan's role at, TSE remembers his journey to, produces The Tempest,