[No surviving envelope]
IHale, Emilybirthdays, presents and love-tokens;w2EH writes poem for TSE's birthday;f2 returned from church this morning to have the delightful surprise of finding your Birthday Greetings on my table, and reading them before breakfast. That is still better than a cable, to have a letter on the day itself. So the card, with its very Vermont scene (except that there is more activity in the farmyard than I noticed in Vermont myself) comes from ‘The Shop’; and your touching poem1 was composed at The Anchorage. IEliot, Margaret Dawes (TSE's sister);d2 shall probably get a birthday card from sister Margaret in a month’s time: noCheetham, Revd Ericprevented from giving TSE customary birthday greeting;g5 other members of the family ever notice my birthday – IMirrleeses, the;b4 used to get a message always from Fr. Cheetham, but he is on holiday in Ireland – so my only other remembrance comes from the Mirrlees.
I have also two letters from you to answer. First, that of the 19th, which, being about business, was addressed to Russell Square. I am very appreciative of your efforts on my behalf – whichJohnson, Dr SamuelThe Vanity of Human Wishes;a9 suggest an amusing comparison between myself and the unlucky King of Sweden.
Compelled a needy supplicant to wait
While ladies intercede, and slaves debate2
thoughHavens, Pauloffers TSE honorary degree;a5 the comparison of President Havens3 to a slave hardly bears examination. Itravels, trips and plansTSE's 1947 summer in America;g1dependent on lecture engagements;a1 think Toronto is too far afield, and any engagement in Canada would have to be arranged either before I entered the U.S.A. or after I had said good-bye, which would be a complication: the complications of leaving the U.S. and getting permission to re-enter would be too much. AsRichards, Ivor Armstrong ('I. A.');c1 forHarvard University;c1 Harvard, I have spoken to Ivor Richards, who says that I should do a lecture and a poetry reading there. I want to do poetry readings rather than lectures: for one thing, they require very little preparation: for another, I have more conviction in their value to the audience – any lecture of mine worth listening to, would be more profitably read in print than heard. IBritish AcademyTSE's Milton lecture for;a1 shallMilton, JohnBritish Academy lecture on;a6 have certainly one lecture: the'Milton II';a1 British Academy Lecture which I am to deliver in March, on Milton.4 I may also be able to refurbish my Paris lecture of 1945 – but it would have to be a good deal altered, because unluckily it has already appeared in print. I shan’t have time to prepare a variety of lectures, becauseJohnson, Dr SamuelTSE's projected Lives of the Poets essay;a6 I expect during the beginning of 1947 to be polishing off my Essay on Johnson’s Lives of the Poets: but I would probably make one lecture out of selections from that. The other points are: I want to make Boston, not New York, my centre. I want to crowd my speaking engagements into the month of May, so as to be free to devote myself to personal relations during June. And let me put the figure that I want to reach at say a thousand dollars – probably the utmost that my exertions and my reputation will come to. Anyway, I don’t want more money than my expenses in America will come to: it isn’t worth while with the income tax formalities.
I think poor Mr. Havens ought to be reassured about the honorary degree! though it is not quite my province to do so. I am not anxious for more honorary degrees. It would mean a day wasted, at least, which I could spend more pleasantly; there is always the fear lest I may have to make a little speech at some lunch or dinner afterwards; and the ceremonies are very boring; and at that time of year, I know from experience that having to wear a heavy gown on a hot afternoon is very trying.
I'On Poetry: An Address by T. S. Eliot on the Occasion of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of Concord Academy, Concord, Massachusetts, June 3, 1947';a1 don’t suppose ConcordConcord Academy, MassachusettsTSE's Commencement Address to;a4 Academy pays for graduation addresses.5 EnglishMilton Academy, Boston;a5 schools don’t; Milton doesn’t, and I should not like to take money for that sort of thing. I should do this simply because you wanted me to.
IThorp, Willard;b8 can arrange about Harvard, and I will write as you suggest to Willard Thorp and Mr. Havens. ItMorley, Frank Vigor;l4 would probably be easy to get something in New York (I shall ask Frank what he advises); WellesleyWellesley College1947 poetry reading at;a7 would probably be glad to pay for a reading, and perhaps other small colleges in New England.
No, there is only one honorary degree I covet, that is a Doctorate of the University of Coimbra, which has the most magnificent doctor’s gown in the world, only I shouldn’t be able to afford to buy one. TheUniversity of Parishonorary doctorate coveted and dreaded;a1 University of Paris would be pleasant, ifFranceFrench language;b3TSE dreads speaking in public;a3 it wasn’t that the French expect one to make a very elaborate speech in French: it’s almost as great an ordeal as being admitted to the Academy. TheWarden of the Cinque Portsone of TSE's two remaining ambitions;a1 onlyKildare Street Club, DublinTSE's desire to join;a1 other things I want (except of a more personal kind) are to be Warden of the Cinq Ports and a member of the Kildare Street Club in Dublin.
IKinchin Smith, F.;a2 have now remembered the names of the man who translated the Trojan Women: it is either Kitchen- or Kinchen-Smith. IGwynne, M. Brooke;b5 think Moira Gwynn [sc. Gwynne] knows him. I shall now try to get in touch with him again.
I’ll consider flying – but preferably west, and back by boat.
I want to know more about your daily routine, cooking and housekeeping whether you have to sit and talk to the lodger in the evening, and whether you find her at all congenial, just tolerable, or intolerable.
IChristianityUnitarianism;d9the issue of communion;b4 am obliged also to say something in response to your letter of the 18th, which is your reply to mine of the 14th.6 IHale, Emilyreligious beliefs and practices;x1the issue of communion;a8 had deliberately put the matter as impersonally as possible – because only in that way could I hope to show you how and why it concerned me to pursue the discussion. I think it is you, my dear, who re-introduce the personal tone, when you say you see no distinction between what I believe and what my Church believes. LetChristianityits sects like different clubs;a7 me put it this way. Suppose that I belong to a Club and a friend of mine declined to become a member, but neverless [sc. nevertheless] insisted on coming in and taking meals there. I should not say to him: ‘I dislike and disapprove of this’; I should say ‘this is contrary to the rules of my Club; if people generally insisted on behaving in this way, it would cease to be a Club at all, it would be an ordinary restaurant. It is my duty, if you persist, to report the matter to the Secretary of the Club and inform the Hall Porter’. This is a very low sort of analogy, yet it can throw some light. Because I know you wouldn’t use a Women’s Club to which you did not belong. At the other extreme, I doubt whether you would think of communicating in a Roman Catholic Church, though you could get away with it just as easily, if you were unknown to the priest. Now, all that I have asked you to do is this: to tell the vicar of any Episcopalian church, before you think of going up to the altar to receive communion there, that you are a Unitarian and have no intention of becoming anything else. Then, if he accepts you, it is not for me to object; only, you would have to do the same at any new church you attended, because you cannot know what the views of any particular incumbent will be. You may remember that, after making some difficulty, you finally agreed to speak to Mr. McLaughlin in Camden [sc. Campden]. McLaughlin was a man rather lax in his views, but you told me that his reply was that he did not object, but that if you made a regular practice of it, he would not be satisfied unless you signified your intention of becoming a member of the Church. What I think of the soundness of this distinction does not matter.
Some years ago, I put the general question to a Bishop, who told me that it was my duty to put the facts before the vicar, whenever I had knowledge of somebody communicating who was not a member of the Church, and that there my responsibility rested. On that occasion, I thought it more considerate to speak to you, and say nothing to the vicar unless you refused to speak to him yourself.
IfChristianitysacraments;d3Holy Communion;a1 you do not take this precaution in every case, then you are receiving the sacrament under false pretences. I hope you will see now that this is not a personal matter, but that I am trying to fulfil a very disagreeable duty, and therefore must have a straight answer, Yes or No, to my request.
I should like to end on another note, but I have found the writing of the above rather exhausting. I shall write again at the weekend, and I shall not allude to this matter again until you have had ample time to reply. I shall probably be unable to write next week until the end of the week, asMortimer, Revd Robert Cecil;a1 I go from Monday to Friday to Oxford, for a meeting of the Archbishop’s Committee on Catholic–Protestant relations: IChrist Church, Oxfordhosts TSE as guest;a1 shall be the guest of Canon Mortimer at Christ Church.7
1.Poem not found.
2.‘Condemned a needy supplicant to wait / While ladies intercede, and slaves debate’ – with reference to Peter the Great (Samuel Johnson, The Vanity of Human Wishes).
3.Paul Havens, President of Wilson College, Chambersburg, PA, 1933–70; friend of EH.
4.‘Milton II’, CProse 7, 21–43; delivered as the Annual Lecture on a Master Mind at the British Academy, 26 Mar. 1947; broadcast on BBC Third Programme; first printed in On Poetry and Poets.
5.See TSE, ‘On Poetry: An Address by T. S. Eliot on the Occasion of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of Concord Academy, Concord, Massachusetts, June 3, 1947’: CProse 7, 11–18.
6.There is no letter of 14 Sept. in this collection: it is perhaps lost, or TSE may have mistaken the date.
7.RevdMortimer, Revd Robert Cecil Robert Cecil Mortimer (1902–76), Canon of Christ Church and Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology, University of Oxford, 1944–9. In 1949 he was to be ordained Bishop of Exeter.
4.RevdCheetham, Revd Eric Eric Cheetham (1892–1957): vicar of St Stephen’s Church, Gloucester Road, London, 1929–56 – ‘a fine ecclesiastical showman’, as E. W. F. Tomlin dubbed him. TSE’s landlord and friend at presbytery-houses in S. Kensington, 1934–9. See Letters 7, 34–8.
6.MargaretEliot, Margaret Dawes (TSE's sister) Dawes Eliot (1871–1956), TSE's second-oldest sister sister, resident in Cambridge, Mass. In an undated letter (1952) to his Harvard friend Leon M. Little, TSE wrote: ‘Margaret is 83, deaf, eccentric, recluse (I don’t think she has bought any new clothes since 1900).’
4.M. BrookeGwynne, M. Brooke Gwynne, University of London Institute of Education – ‘a Training College for Graduate students’ – invited TSE on 19 Jan. to participate in their Weds.-morning seminar: ‘Emily Hale suggested that you might possibly consent to come to the Institute to talk to our students; otherwise I should have not felt justified in asking you … The teaching of poetry is the subject most hotly discussed & the subject we should like you to choose if possible.’
2.F. KinchinKinchin Smith, F. Smith (1895–1958), classicist, taught from 1934 in the Institute of Education, University of London; from 1936, he was Hon. Secretary of the Joint Committee of the Classical and English Associations. Best known for his Teach Yourself volumes on Greek and Latin, he also produced versions of The Trojan Women of Euripides (a work that was to be offered to F&F later in 1946 – and turned down) and the Antigone of Sophocles.
4.FrankMorley, Frank Vigor Vigor Morley (1899–1980), American publisher and author; a founding editor of F&F, 1929–39: see Biographical Register.
7.RevdMortimer, Revd Robert Cecil Robert Cecil Mortimer (1902–76), Canon of Christ Church and Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology, University of Oxford, 1944–9. In 1949 he was to be ordained Bishop of Exeter.
4.I. A. RichardsRichards, Ivor Armstrong ('I. A.') (1893–1979), theorist of literature, education and communication studies: see Biographical Register.
1.Margaret Thorp, née Farrand (1891–1970), contemporary and close friend of EH; noted author and biographer. WillardThorp, Willard Thorp (1899–1990) was a Professor of English at Princeton University. See Biographical Register. See further Lyndall Gordon, Hyacinth Girl, 126–8, 158–9.