[No surviving envelope]
Itravels, trips and plansTSE's 1946 summer in America;f9TSE's itinerary;a3 have your letter of April 23, which I must keep by me, as it contains your programme for the summer. I must keep in mind the periods June 5 to 17 and 17 to 23. From what I am told, I ought to hear within a week, whether I shall get a passage within the time set, though I shall not be advised of my date of departure until three or four days ahead. Cook’s, and other people, seem to think there will be no difficulty: but my arrangements must depend, not merely on the date of departure, but on the speed of the particular vessel that carries me. IEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother)ill again;j8 am all the more anxious to come now, as I hear that Henry is again not very well, so I shall aim to run up to Boston for the first weekend after my arrival for a first survey of the family scene. On that occasion, would you prefer me to come out to Concord, or would you prefer to come in to Boston? IfAmericaTSE nervous at readjusting to;b7 I find any difficulty in adjusting myself to life in America, after these years, and with the differences between American [sic] and Europe which will no doubt be so immediately apparent at the present time, that is all the more reason for seeing those I love as soon as possible, to reconcile me to the rest. But I know that Americans individually are full of good will and sympathy, and that the Senate does not provide faces representative of the best of the country, or even of the average. (IFarmer, Herbert Henry;a2 know H. H. Farmer, who is one of the most distinguished of the Congregationalists: he used to be a member of the Moot. At one time he was a professor of theology in Connecticut).1
YouHale, Emilyas actor;v8as Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit;d2 doCoward, NoëlBlithe Spirit;a6 not say where ‘Blithe Spirit’ (which I have never seen) is to be produced. Is there any hope of my being able to see you in it, at the beginning of July?2 It is many many years since I have seen you on the stage.
The domestic situation has been very unsettled. The Yorkshirewoman is shy and reserved and inscrutible [sc. inscrutable]. Twenty four hours after she arrived she declared that she would have to leave, the job was too much for her. ItMme Frenayspooks successor;a5 would seem that that was the effect of being here over night in the company of Madame Frenay. The latter had got into such a panic about her health that she was in a state to infect anybody else. ButCross, Ellen;a2 it gradually appeared that Ellen Cross was not afraid of work: for whereas Mme. F.’s reason for going was that there was too much work (though all she did was the cooking, the bedmaking and the marketing – anything else that the char did not do was not done, and the place was not very clean. But of course marketing is very tiring nowadays, with the endless queues: yet the part of the work would be the same anywhere)[,] Ellen gave as one reason that there was not enough work for her! So we engaged another woman – who, two days before she was due to arrive (having seemed keen to get the place) wired to say she had taken another post. Servants are constantly doing that to new employers nowadays – it has happened several times to the Mirrlees. Ellen then said ‘what a wicked woman’ and has offered to stay indefinitely, and as she is very clean, hard working and efficient, we hope that she may settle down. (EspeciallyHayward, Johnfurther handicapped without telephone;m5 as John is so much handicapped without a telephone, and I gather that there will be no more telephones in Cheyne Walk until they have dug up the street and laid new conduits). What we think she may have got into her queer head is that Madame Frenay was a ‘lady’, and that that was what we really wanted. Ellen would like entertaining, but is shy of appearing in the drawing room. I should like to feel that no change would have to be made while I am away. Fortunately John has friends in the neighbourhood, who will telephone for him, or wheel him round to their houses to telephone.
I shall hope to inspect not only your present lodgings, but your habitation for next winter. It seems to offer certain advantages; I am sorry about the view, but I am glad you are to be nearer to the school, for midwinter weather.
IKeynes, John MaynardTSE's NEW memorial to;a7 have finished anNew English Weeklycommission TSE on Keynes;c3 article'John Maynard Keynes';a1 on Maynard Keynes for the New English Weekly,3 andWilliams, CharlesTSE's eulogy on;b1 my'Significance of Charles Williams, The';a1 last chore this season will be to try to write something about Charles Williams.4 The death of distinguished friends is an inconvenience. ThisValéry, Paul;a6 last year I have had Valéry, Keynes and Williams to write about; toPound, Ezrahis legal situation;d2 say nothing of the bother about Pound – I'Ezra Pound';a2 have sent off an article about his work to ‘Poetry’ (Chicago) which should appear in June.
I hope it will not be long before I can send you a cable.
[Enclosure]
HenryFamily Reunion, The1946 Birmingham production;i1;a1 might like to see these enclosures.5 ILatham, Harry ('Hal') Stuartproduces The Family Reunion;a1 did not see the production of ‘The Family Reunion’ at Birmingham: it seems to have been surprisingly successful, produced by Hal Latham.6 TheMurder in the Cathedral1946 Teatro Nacional production;g2earmarked for repertory;a1 Director of the National Theatre of Madrid wants to add to his repertory: ‘BlithePriestley, J. B.Dangerous Corner;a8 Spirit’, ‘Dangerous Corner’ (Priestley) and ‘Murder in the Cathedral’. A curious mixture: he seems equally enthusiastic about all of them. IDukes, Ashleyreports on TSE's continental productions;g9 have not heard further from Dukes about theMurder in the Cathedral1946 German production;g3;a1 production of ‘Murder’ in Germany.
1.HerbertFarmer, Herbert Henry Henry Farmer (1892–1981), British Presbyterian minister, philosopher of religion, noted preacher, taught at the Hartford Seminary foundation in Connecticut, 1931–5. Thereafter he was appointed Barbour Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster College, Cambridge, 1935–60. His works included The Healing Cross (sermons, 1938); The Servant of the Word (1941); Towards a Belief in God (1942).
2.HaleHale, Emilyas actor;v8joins the Dorset Players;d5 had joined theDorset Players, Thedescribed;a1n Dorset Players, a drama group set up in 1927 by a local doctor, Edward Goodman, and his wife, May – they had a passion for the theatre – who started out by staging plays in the Town Hall in Dorset, Vermont, but raised funds to open a professional theatre, the Dorset Playhouse, in Jan. 1929. EH was to take the role of Madame Arcati in the Players production of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, directed by Paul Stephenson.
ForFoss, Sallyrecollects EH;a2n SallyAmericaDorset, Vermont;e3;a2n Foss’s memories of driving TSE from Concord up to Dorset– including his enjoyment of a picnic, his enthusiasm for wading in a brook (‘Oh, this is perfect’), and the merriness with which he played games with a group of young children at the Dorset Inn – see Susan Stewart and Joshua Kotin, ‘A Conversation with Sally Foss about Emily Hale’, Time Present: The Newsletter of the International T. S. Eliot Society, no. 100 (Spring 2020), 2, 18–23. Sally Foss, who knew EH through her mother, Mary (EH ‘was like a sister, you might say, for my mother’), and who was a student at Concord Academy, recalled too that EH ‘was wonderful to be with. Very relaxed and very attentive to what you’re thinking as much as what you’re saying … She was very easy to be with … It was teaching, but it was also listening, you know? … She taught us how to get into a specific emotional place and then write about it … She was very inviting. She was a wonderful teacher … She was very relaxed, very open, very honest, very genuine. And funny. We laughed a lot.’
3.‘John Maynard Keynes’, New English Weekly 29 (16 May 1946), 47–8: CProse 6, 748–52.
4.‘The Significance of Charles Williams’, The Listener 36 (19 Dec. 1946), 894–5: CProse 6, 772–6.
5.Enclosures not found.
6.HarryLatham, Harry ('Hal') Stuart (‘Hal’) Stuart Latham (1912–93), directed The Family Reunion at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.
4.AshleyDukes, Ashley Dukes (1885–1959), theatre manager, playwright, critic, translator, adapter, author; from 1933, owner of the Mercury Theatre, London: see Biographical Register.
3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: see Biographical Register.
1.HerbertFarmer, Herbert Henry Henry Farmer (1892–1981), British Presbyterian minister, philosopher of religion, noted preacher, taught at the Hartford Seminary foundation in Connecticut, 1931–5. Thereafter he was appointed Barbour Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster College, Cambridge, 1935–60. His works included The Healing Cross (sermons, 1938); The Servant of the Word (1941); Towards a Belief in God (1942).
11.JohnHayward, John Davy Hayward (1905–65), editor and critic: see Biographical Register.
4.JohnKeynes, John Maynard Maynard Keynes (1883–1946), economist; editor; patron of the arts; government adviser: see Biographical Register.
6.HarryLatham, Harry ('Hal') Stuart (‘Hal’) Stuart Latham (1912–93), directed The Family Reunion at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.
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.’
3.Ezra PoundPound, Ezra (1885–1972), American poet and critic: see Biographical Register.
1.J. B. PriestleyPriestley, J. B. (1894–1984), novelist, playwright, social commentator, broadcaster; author of bestselling novels including The Good Companions (1929) and Angel Pavement (1930); and plays including Time and the Conways (1937) and An Inspector Calls (1945).