[No surviving envelope]
Thetravels, trips and plansTSE's 1946 summer in America;f9paperwork for;a2 enclosed (which looks exactly like the passport photograph taken of me 20 years ago, and does not really show my cadaverousness) is evidence that I have been taking steps. IFaber, Geoffrey;k5 had first to fill in a form for the Treasury asking permission to use Faber & Faber’s money, get it signed by Faber, get it stamped by the bank, and get Cook’s to submit it to the Exchange Control. This went through quickly, once prepared; but I have been hold [sc. held] up for a week simply for the passport office to put ‘U.S.A.’ on my passport – it was there before, but crossed out during the war – the only country my passport is good for is France. A simple thing like this takes a long time, and I have been waiting a week for it. When I get my passport, I apply to the American Consulate for a visa: this ought to take only a morning, or perhaps a day; after that I write to the Department of Overseas Trade to ask them to assign me a passage, through Cooks. My only worry is that there will be delays such that I shall have to postpone coming to the autumn, as I do not want to be in New York during July, whether the publishers are still there or not.
FrankMorley, Frank Vigorputs TSE up in New York;l3 Morley writes that the hotel accommodation in New York is very scarce, and kindly offers me shelter in a large flat where they are now living: address, Apartment 40, 131 East 66th Street, New York 21. There is no telephone, but I should like you to send me your telephone number, in the hope that I can find some place from which to make private trunk calls in [sc. on] arrival. I propose to spend a week or two straight on in New York on arrival, then come up to Boston, then go back to New York, and keep the latter part of my visit for New England.
Itravels, trips and plansTSE's 1946 summer in America;f9TSE's itinerary;a3 have not said anything about looking forward to seeing you, out of a kind of superstitiousness: lest the more I said about my visit, beyond a bare report of the steps taken towards it, the more likely that some accident would prevent it! But if you are to be in Concord through June, then, when I cable you on securing a passage, will you secure a room for me at the hotel during, say, the fourth week of my stay, or the fifth (but I should hope to see you before then!) (I should, in any case, want to come out to see you on my first visit to Cambridge). I do not know how much privacy or anonymity is possible in Concord: theElsmith, Dorothy Olcott;b3 ideal, of course, would be to be invited together by some friend of yours like Dorothy Elsmith, but I suppose that may not be possible to manage.
IPound, Ezradefended by TSE in Poetry;d5 should have written sooner, but'Ezra Pound';a1 I have had to give all my spare time to writing an article about Ezra Pound for Poetry Chicago – they cabled for it by May 1st, and in the circumstances this has had to take precedence over anything else. Now it is done, and was difficult to do.1 AtMme Frenayresigns post;a4 the same time, we have had to look for a new housekeeper. Madame Frenay finds the job too much for her; though she really has a very easy time, as the charwoman has done all the heavy work. The charwoman is very good indeed, but the result has been that the rooms have not been as free from dust as we could wish. The fact is that Madame Frenay should not have taken the job; it obviously attracted her, and if she had been in normal strength all would have been well; but she had a serious operation last winter, and she should only do very light work. WeCross, Ellen;a1 have decided on a more humble person, a Yorkshire woman with a daughter of 14, who will be with her at weekends, whose appearance is encouraging (the mother I mean) and whose reference is very good. She comes after Easter. I am really rather relieved to make the change now; as it is essential, from John’s point of view especially, to have somebody whose health will not fail suddenly. It is a great inconvenience for him, not being able to get a telephone – perhaps not till late in the year.
I shall try to find the copy of your letter to Scripps – but it will be difficult, with the disorder everything has got in to with so much moving about. I am sorry I did not return it at once, but I do not think you asked me to? IHale, Emilyholidays briefly in Farmington;q9 am very glad youAmericaFarmington, Connecticut;e5EH holidays in;a4 have had a good though short holiday in Farmington.
1.‘Ezra Pound’, Poetry 68 (Sept. 1946), 326–8; repr. in Ezra Pound: A Collection of Essays to be Presented to Ezra Pound on his Sixty-Fifth Birthday (London, 1950): CProse 6, 759–70.
4.TSEElsmiths, theseminal Woods Hole stay with;a1Elsmith, Dorothy Olcott
11.GeoffreyFaber, Geoffrey Faber (1889–1961), publisher and poet: see Biographical Register.
1.TSEMme Frenay to John Hayward, 8 Jan. 1946: ‘I have interviewed Madame Frenay today, and was very well impressed. Her ailment was a cancer of the side, she says, but after five months in hospital her doctor declares her cured and fit to work. She is middle-aged, portly, and pleasant in manner and appearance. I have asked Miss Melton to get on to P. Codrington who has the references, and get her either to take them up or let me have the names and addresses. She has been a nursery governess until her illness, before that kept house until her husband died. P.C. told Miss M. the references looked excellent. Has three sons, one of them a farmer in Devon. Lived in this country since the last war. Knows London well and has friends. She wants £3 a week, says she cant do on less, and I should think she would easily get it. Seemed intelligent and claims to be a good cook, also prepared to do sewing etc.’
4.FrankMorley, Frank Vigor Vigor Morley (1899–1980), American publisher and author; a founding editor of F&F, 1929–39: see Biographical Register.
3.Ezra PoundPound, Ezra (1885–1972), American poet and critic: see Biographical Register.