[Bennett Junior College, Millbrook, New York]
Letter 12
Your letter of March 18 arrived this morning: you will now be having your holiday – you do not say for how long – and I hope, some of it in New Bedford. One advantage, and I hope not quite the only one, of being where you are, seems to be greater proximity to New York, andElsmiths, the;a6 I trust that you will be able to break the next term also by a visit to the Elsmiths. IElsmith, Dorothy Olcott;a7 will write to Mrs. Elsmith, as indeed I did not when I should have done; andWhiting, IsabelTSE inscribes book to;a1 I will get the book inscribed to Isabel K. Whiting1 this week, unless it is out of stock. I was glad to get more of an account of Mrs. Hodges than was contained in the letter which was supposed to be lost but wasn’t, and it presents some of your difficulties much more clearly than before. I only trust that the lady is not touchy and jealous, as well as lacking in some of the qualities necessary in a teacher. What you have not yet told me is the background, education, culture and class of the average girl: what they come from and what sort of view of life is common among them. That would interest me very much. I like to know about people how they (or, if they are young, their parents) earn their living (or, in general, where the money comes from); what the religious connexions of their grand-parents were; and what it is that they are most afraid of. This last one is very unlikely to find out anyway. IHale, Emilyas actor;v8in a Van Druten play;c8 don’t know theVan Druten, John;a1 Van Druten play, unfortunately, so I cannot imagine what sort of part you had, but it looks rather like one of the domestic staff: I take it that all the important parts are given to the students.2
I'Kipling – The People’s Poet';a3 have spent part of this weekend grinding out a short essay on Kipling for the Ministry of Information periodical published in Russian in Moscow: it seems that the Russians are taking a keen interest in Kipling. JustBadoglio, Pietro;a1 as they recognise Badoglio,3 so they recognise Kipling, to the discomfiture of some of the Left-Wingers. AndSpender, Stephenat poetry reading to Free Hungarians;c8 on Wednesday afternoon, at the behest of Stephen Spender (who will turn up in his fireman’s uniform, which makes him look taller and thinner than ever) I have to take part in a poetry reading to the Free Hungarians (there are Free Everything): I hope that this will solace them for a few minutes for the distressful events now happening in their mother-land.4 OnHoellering, George M.accompanies TSE on Canterbury recce;a7 ThursdayMurder in the CathedralHoellering film;g1reconnoitre of Canterbury for;a4 toRead, Herberton Canterbury excursion;c6 Canterbury for a night with George Hoellering the film-producer, and Herbert Read, to prospect for Murder and meet the Dean and Chapter. NextWarde, Beatrice (née Becker)TSE to meet;a3 week (Holy Week too!) theBooks Across the Seareception for Beatrice Warde;a8 Books Across the Sea have a reception to meet Mrs. Beatrice Warde, who seems to be the moving spirit in the New York operations for that organisation.5 So I shall only get the ordinary four days away at Easter. Ispringat Shamley;b1 should like to spend rather more of my time in the country just at this moment, when the trees are beginning to look a little misty with foliage in the distance, and the primroses, which after a premature appearance at the end of January prudently lay low until now, just breaking in to a chorus of gold. MyVirgil Society, TheTSE's Presidental Address for;a3 Virgil Society meeting has been postponed to the autumn (his birthday seems to be in October) so I do not have to think about that immediately; but I must see if I can compose a little talk for French folk on the influences of French poetry on myself. ThisShamley Wood, Surreyits melodramas;b2 has been a quiet weekend: CockieMoncrieff, Constance ('Cocky')has hair waved;b5 is in London having her hair waved and her photograph taken, to have it ready to send to her former maid in France at the first opportunity; HopeMirrlees, Hope;c4 is in bed with a cold; andMirrlees, Emily Lina ('Mappie', née Moncrieff);d7, I am much more sorry to say, so is Mappie (one worries because she is a Christian Scientist: she caught cold going over to Godalming to see old Dr. Haig-Brown who is dying). SoBehrens, Margaret Elizabeth (née Davidson)reports on poultry-feeding manuscript;b2 there is no one but the Field-Marshal, who is a quiet body anyway, and who is busy reading a manuscript about poultry-feeding on which I have asked her to report to Faber & Faber. AsFaber and Faber (F&F)Picture Post photographs boardroom;f1 for the latter, I enclose a page from the last Picture Post, which shows my Board hard at work:6 weSwan, Ethelnotably unphotographed by Picture Post;a8 only regretted that there was not a photograph of Miss Swan as well.
1.AnWhiting, Isabel old, close friend of EH’s, Isabel Whiting lived for some years at 11 Mason Street, Cambridge, MA; later at 9 Phillips Place, Cambridge, MA.
2.JohnVan Druten, John Van Druten (1901–57), noted British-born American playwright, theatre director and screenwriter. His many plays include Diversion (1927), London Wall (1931) and Behold, We Live (1932); and he was later celebrated for I Am a Camera (1951), based on the novels of Christopher Isherwood, which was to be transformed into the great musical Cabaret (1966).
3.PietroBadoglio, Pietro Badoglio (1871–1956), Italian general and politician. Badoglio was the Italian Army chief of staff at the start of WW2 but was dismissed during the unsuccessful Italian invasion of Greece in 1940. In 1943, when Mussolini was deposed and Italy changed sides in the war, Badoglio became Italy’s Prime Minister and held office until mid-1944. Badoglio, a loyal fascist, had been responsible for atrocities in Italian Libya and during Italy’s conquest of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in the 1930s but never faced trial.
4.Hungary had been a reluctant ally of Germany since 1941. German troops took full control of the country from 19 March 1944 as the Soviet advance from the Ukraine and Belorussia neared Hungary’s eastern borders. One consequence was that many of Hungary’s Jews, until now protected from the Nazis, were deported to extermination camps.
5.TSE to Hayward, 27 Mar. 1944: ‘on Monday next […] there is a Reception of Books Across the Sea to greet Mrs. Beatrice Warde […] on her return to London from New York. All I know about Mrs. Warde is that she is the Live Wire, the Dynamic Personality, of the BookSwopping Game.’ TSE again characterised Warde as a ‘Dynamic Personality’ in a letter to Mary Trevelyan (13 Oct. 1944).
6.Picture Post, 25 Mar. 1944, 23.
3.PietroBadoglio, Pietro Badoglio (1871–1956), Italian general and politician. Badoglio was the Italian Army chief of staff at the start of WW2 but was dismissed during the unsuccessful Italian invasion of Greece in 1940. In 1943, when Mussolini was deposed and Italy changed sides in the war, Badoglio became Italy’s Prime Minister and held office until mid-1944. Badoglio, a loyal fascist, had been responsible for atrocities in Italian Libya and during Italy’s conquest of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in the 1930s but never faced trial.
4.MargaretBehrens, Margaret Elizabeth (née Davidson) Elizabeth Behrens, née Davidson (1885–1968), author of novels including In Masquerade (1930); Puck in Petticoats (1931); Miss Mackay (1932); Half a Loaf (1933).
4.TSEElsmiths, theseminal Woods Hole stay with;a1Elsmith, Dorothy Olcott
3.GeorgeHoellering, George M. M. Hoellering (1898–1980), Austrian-born filmmaker and cinema manager: see Biographical Register.
3.HopeMirrlees, Emily Lina ('Mappie', née Moncrieff) Mirrlees’s mother was Emily Lina Mirrlees, née Moncrieff (1862–1948) – known as ‘Mappie’ or ‘Mappy’ – see Biographical Register.
2.HopeMirrlees, Hope Mirrlees (1887–1978), British poet, novelist, translator and biographer, was to become a close friend of TSE: see Biographical Register.
3.Herbert ReadRead, Herbert (1893–1968), English poet and literary critic: see Biographical Register.
12.Stephen SpenderSpender, Stephen (1909–95), poet and critic: see Biographical Register.
2.EthelSwan, Ethel Swan, a Faber & Gwyer ‘pioneer’, joined the firm on 12 Oct. 1925, as telephonist and receptionist, retiring in 1972 after 47 years. PeterSwan, EthelPeter du Sautoy's tribute to;a2n du Sautoy reported in 1971: ‘These duties she still performs with admirable skill and charm … SheJoyce, Jameson the phone to the F&F receptionist;c1n has an amazing memory for voices and it is certain that if James Joyce were to return to earth to telephone a complaint (he called us “Feebler and Fumbler”) she would say “Good morning, Mr Joyce” before he could introduce himself, as if he had previously been telephoning only yesterday. Many a visiting author or publisher from overseas has felt more kindly towards Faber & Faber as a result of Miss Swan’s friendly recognition’ (‘Farewell, Russell Square’, The Bookseller no. 3410 [1 May 1971], 2040).
2.JohnVan Druten, John Van Druten (1901–57), noted British-born American playwright, theatre director and screenwriter. His many plays include Diversion (1927), London Wall (1931) and Behold, We Live (1932); and he was later celebrated for I Am a Camera (1951), based on the novels of Christopher Isherwood, which was to be transformed into the great musical Cabaret (1966).
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.
1.AnWhiting, Isabel old, close friend of EH’s, Isabel Whiting lived for some years at 11 Mason Street, Cambridge, MA; later at 9 Phillips Place, Cambridge, MA.