[No surviving envelope]

T. S.Eliot
EmilyHale
TS
Faber & Faber Ltd
Letter 20.
19 June 1944
Dearest Emily,

I have no letter from you since I last wrote, but I presume that you have now said good-bye to Millbrook, and are spending a few days in Boston before going to Bleak House. I despatched the Swedish portrait a week ago, by ordinary mail, andEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother)sent Picture Post F&F photos;i3 at the same time sent Henry one of the Picture Post photographs, one they didn’t use.1 I'Broadcast on the liberation of Rome by the Allies';a2 have also mailed to-day, by ordinary mail, a typed copy of my broadcast on Rome, which has been well spoken of,2 but will not appear in print (itRoberts, Janetwrites about Rome broadcast;a9 provoked a letter from Janet Roberts, who happened to hear it: itRoberts, Michaelmakes way for TSE's broadcast;b7 seems that it took place in some time that Michael ordinarily has for his purposes – you know he is in the B.B.C. during the war). I am rather tired, from odds and ends, and am not going to a conference at Horsham this weekend. TheSecond World WarOperation Overlord;e4 immediate course of the war is absorbing one’s attention and energy, to an extent which it has not done since 1940, but of course in a very different mood. But it preoccupies my mind and interferes when I am consciously trying to concentrate on something else: which makes writing very tiring, and as for letters, leaves my mind blank: though plenty of things to say come to my mind in between. It doesn’t mean that I think of you any less often! and it means that your letters are, if anything, all the more wished for.

Your devoted
Tom

1.The additional photographs – including one of TSE, Morley Kennerley and Geoffrey Faber at the Book Committee, and another showing TSE and MK in discussion in MK’s room, all taken on 23 March – are held at Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Hollings Library, University of South Carolina Libraries, Columbia, South Carolina.

2.[‘On the debt of all European peoples to Rome’]: copy in Houghton MS Am 1691 (35). John Hayward and Geoffrey Faber were also given copies.

'Broadcast on the liberation of Rome by the Allies',
Eliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother), hears TSE's Dryden broadcast, as potential confidant, sibling most attuned to TSE's needs, witness to the Eliots in 1926, surprises TSE in Boston, his aura of futility, disputes New Yorker profile of TSE, at Eliot family Thanksgiving, attends second Norton lecture, his business in Chicago, hosts TSE in New York, TSE reads his second detective story, his immaturity, accuses TSE of wrath, writes TSE long critical letter, the favourite of TSE's parents, sends New York Murder clippings, writes again about religion, insensitive to European affairs, Peabody Museum employ as research associate, gives TSE pyjamas for Christmas, sends TSE luggage for Christmas, hosts Murder's Boston cast, sends present to Morley children, cables TSE on 50th birthday, given draft of Family Reunion, gives TSE portfolio, champions Kauffer's photograph of TSE, explains operation on ears, sends list of securities, takes pleasure in shouldering Margaret, undergoes serious operation, recovering at home, as curator of Eliotana, as curator of Eliotana, war imperils final reunion with, and TSE's rumoured Vatican audience, corresponds with TSE monthly, offers Tom Faber wartime refuge, nervous about TSE during Blitz, as described by Frank Morley, recalls The Dry Salvages, has appendix out, cautioned as to health, frail, condition worries TSE, as correspondent, friend to J. J. Sweeney, tries TSE's patience, reports on Ada, describes Ada's funeral, beleaguered by Margaret, sent Picture Post F&F photos, likened to Grandfather Stearns, goitre operated on, his archaeological endeavours, back in hospital, imagined in exclusively female company, ill again, as brother, has pneumonia, terminal leukaemia, prospect of his death versus Ada's, anxieties induced by deafness, writes to TSE despite illness, death, memorial service for, on EH's presumption, Michael Roberts's symptoms reminiscent of, his Chicago acquaintance, friends with Robert Lowell's father, invoked against EH, on TSE's love for EH, buried in Garrett family lot, The Rumble Murders,

3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: see Biographical Register.

Roberts, Janet, just returned from the Alps, laments The Criterion's closure, remembers EH in Scotland, her parents recalled by EH, sends TSE butter, resemblance to husband, TSE's fondness for, writes about Rome broadcast, confides Michael's illness, following Michael's death, TSE reads to her children, dinner with over Christmas, worried about Michael's job,
see also Robertses, the
Roberts, Michael, sketched in thumbnail, reviews Collected Poems, introduces radio Waste Land, described for EH, EH interests herself in, singles out Burnt Norton, asks TSE to be godfather, fingered for TSE's mentor role, recommended for EH's 'criticism' course, working for BBC, resemblance to wife, assists TSE in judging translations, at Norwegian diplomatic dinner, makes way for TSE's broadcast, terminally ill, dies of leukaemia, The Modern Mind, New Signatures, T. E. Hulme,
see also Robertses, the

1.MichaelRoberts, Michael Roberts (1902–48), critic, editor, poet: see Biographical Register.

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,