[No surviving envelope]
On returning from Shamley I was overjoyed to find your three air-letters (18, 25 and 29 August: I read them in order, of course) waiting for me. IHale, Emilyholidaying on Grand Manan;r1 should have been very uneasy to find nothing. I am very glad that you should write me frequent short letters, from grand Manan, for the important thing is that you should make the most of your brief holiday: I had rather this, and that you postponed any lengthy replies (you need never reply except to a direct question!) until the vacation is over, and I do not want you ever to feel that everything I say in a letter needs more than an acknowledgement. (I wonder whether I detected a suggestion in your first letter that I had been talking too much about myself! Of course I want to know what you are thinking and feeling – always: but all I have wanted from you from Grand Manan was constant reassurances – such as you are giving – but I always want more – andChristianitybelief;b1antidote to TSE's skepticism;a4 I am naturally very sceptical (that is why I had to be a Christian, because I couldn’t believe in anything else) and besides I have never, so far as I know, been loved by any woman.) I am glad to have a good report of Grand Manan and what it has done for you; IFoss, Mary;a1 am amused to hear about Mary Foss1 – I should like to see the photographs she showed, and hope there is one of Mrs. Williams2 bathing in my hat – of course she is plebeian and one must be prepared for indiscretions. I like to think of you basking in the sun, and not thinking much, and I hope not unhappy.
Astravels, trips and plansTSE's 1947 summer in America;g1dependent on lecture engagements;a1 for the possible engagements in America next year, remember: I probably should not be able to come for more than two months again; I therefore should not want any more lecture engagements than I needed to pay my expenses; I should not want to go very far from New England. TheEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother);j9 point is, the minimum of time spent in work, and the maximum with you and of course with Henry.
IBliss, Kathleenaccepts TSE's CNL resignation;a2 cannot help enclosing a letter from Mrs. Bliss, the Editor of the Christian News-Letter, accepting my resignation. IOldham, Joseph;f1 also had lunch with Oldham to-day, and he was equally charming and reasonable. Of course I haven’t really been much more than of negative use – I have stopped them from publishing some things which would not have done the periodical any credit. But I am so thankful to be able to retire now on the quite genuine ground of lack of time: for I had been fearful of having to retire sooner or later on some matter of policy.
Fortravels, trips and plansTSE's 1946 summer in America;f9its aftermath;a4 the first week after my return I was still in a state of exaltation; during the following weeks I went through an agony of missing you; within the last few days I have gained some stability, I think.3 IHale, Emilyrelationship with TSE;w9as perpetual progress and revelation;c1 remind myself that this has been a beginning, not an end – the beginning, I believe of learning to know and understand you better and better – for understanding of another person (as, indeed, of oneself!) is an endless process – so that what matters is progress. I know that there is always a greater depth for love to penetrate, and a further distance for understanding to go. No man has seen God at any time, and no one has attained to the absolute of Love.
1.MaryFoss, Mary Foss was an old friend of EH: they were contemporaries at Miss Porter’s School, Farmington, CT, where they acted in plays and were members of a Shakespeare club. EH would often visit the Fosses at their home in Concord, and she taught the daughter, Sally Foss, while at Concord Academy.
2.Mrs Williams was a very close friend of Mary Foss.
3.Seetravels, trips and plansTSE's 1946 summer in America;f9recounted;a5n TSE to Meg Nason, 4 Aug. 1946: ‘Emily was pretty well, though thinner than I should like. IHale, Emilyas actor;v8as Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit;d2 had four delightful days in her company in Dorset, New Hampshire, a charming place where she was taking the leading part, and with great success, in a summer production of ‘Blithe Spirit’. She was asked to return to take part in ‘Hedda Gabler’, and as the success with ‘Blithe Spirit’ seemed to do her so much good, I was in favour of this: butPerkins, Edith (EH's aunt)sight deteriorates in other eye;h3n unfortunately, Mrs [Edith] Perkins (who for some time has had only one good eye) developed trouble in the other eye. This may improve, but Emily decided that she must sacrifice Dorset to be with her aunt. SheHale, Emilyholidaying on Grand Manan;r1 will, however – all her friends were very emphatic about this – take the full month’s holiday she had arranged at Grand Manan. That has always done her good’ (BL Add MS 74779).
To Willard Thorp, 5 Aug. 1946: ‘I had four very happy days in Emily’s company in Dorset, Vermont, where she was taking the leading role in Blithe Spirit’ (Princeton).
ToPerkins, Edith (EH's aunt)thanked for 1946 hospitality;h4n Edith Perkins, 14 Aug. 1946: ‘I have been meaning to write ever since my return (it will soon be two weeks) […] You were, as always, the soul of hospitality and kindness to me; andAmericaPetersham, Massachusetts;g5TSE visits with the Perkinses;a2n made me immediately at home in Commonwealth Avenue and even in the hotel at Petersham, just as you would have done in Campden. It was a great pleasure and a privilege to be with you in Petersham, and I was so very glad to be with you during part of that ordeal which you bore so bravely – I shall not forget the Lecture, and what a success you made of it.
‘I hope that you are comfortable at Scarborough, that it will benefit you […] I am glad to think of Emily at Grand Manan too, which has usually done her much good. What pleased and relieved me was that the work at Dorset, which I had feared might be too exhausting after her year in Concord, seemed really to stimulate her – I thought she was better at the end of it than when I first saw her, and the success did her good, and the people with whom she had to work were so very nice.
‘I consider my visit as a whole very successful, and it brought me happiness enough to last through the winter: it was a happy time beyond my expectations: first because of Emily and second because I could see my brother’s health improve.’
On 18 July 1946 Mrs Perkins had delivered in Petersham, Massachusetts, what TSE referred to as her ‘Garden Lecture’. He'Valedictory: Forbidding Mourning: to the Lady of the House, A'TSE recites again;a3 had read the poem that he had written for her in 1935, ‘A Valedictory / Forbidding Mourning: to the Lady of the House’ (Letters 7, 778–80; Poems I, 292–3).
11.KathleenBliss, Kathleen Bliss (1908–89), theologian, missionary and writer, worked as assistant editor of the Christian News-Letter; as editor, 1945–9. She served too on the World Council of Churches; as a member of the executive committee from 1954; and also as a BBC producer, 1950–5. Her publications include The Service and Status of Women in the Churches (1952).
3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: see Biographical Register.
1.MaryFoss, Mary Foss was an old friend of EH: they were contemporaries at Miss Porter’s School, Farmington, CT, where they acted in plays and were members of a Shakespeare club. EH would often visit the Fosses at their home in Concord, and she taught the daughter, Sally Foss, while at Concord Academy.
8.JosephOldham, Joseph (‘Joe’) Houldsworth Oldham (1874–1969), missionary, adviser, organiser: see Biographical Register.