[No surviving envelope]
I returned from Oxford yesterday, and found your welcome letter of the 29th awaiting me. First I must say that I have written twice every week, though not always on the same days; so that if there has been a gap some letter must have been delayed. But I have always written by airmail. IChrist Church, Oxfordhosts TSE as guest;a1 enjoyed my visit to Oxford, staying at Christ Church, with a group of theologians who impressed me very much: ofDemant, Revd Vigo Auguste;b9 theSmyth, Revd Charlesmade Canon of Westminster;a9 whole group engaged on this report, only Demant, who is in America, and Smyth, who is engaged in moving house on just becoming a Canon of Westminster, were absent, and a third man whom I do not know. ItNotes Towards the Definition of Culturestimulated by Christ Church symposium;a6 was profitable, both in that considerable progress was made with the report, and in that I gained some ideas for my own book. And some of my suggestions will be elaborated in the report. Iappearance (TSE's)hernia;b9deferred operation for;a2 shall see my doctor again on Tuesday, after a month’s absence, and shall probably make an appointment with him soon to see a hernia specialist. I have a number of questions to ask about the details of convalescence. Of course it is just possible that the specialist will not want to operate at all, as the hernia is slight. I shall let you know everything in it as arranged. There is no danger in the operation, which is regarded as a minor one; only the convalescence, with remedial exercises for the muscles etc. may be tedious. But I should not think it would be more than three weeks during which I should be unable to write – I have just typed three, but I mean two weeks.
AsCheetham, Revd Ericone of TSE's few intimates;g6 for confiding in friends, I explained the essential fact to Cheetham long ago. AsHayward, Johnamong TSE's closest friends;j7 for John, there is no reason why I should not tell him, when a suitable occasion arises: I have noticed that confidences forced upon people à propos of nothing are apt to cause embarrassment – the embarrassment simply of thinking of just the right thing to say; whereas, if they are called forth by the occasion, the proper response comes naturally. But I do not think I know anyone else: withBrownes, the Martinamong TSE's intimates;c7 the Brownes, again, it would not be that I wished to share anything with them, but rather, that if a situation made it natural to speak, I should not avoid it. I have rather assumed that they saw for themselves how things were. I have very few intimate friends, and with most of them there are indefinite limits to the intimacy: I have an immense and miscellaneous collection of acquaintances. – ThereRobertses, theamong TSE's few intimates;a6 would be the Roberts’s, again, if the occasion brought it forth naturally.
IPerkinses, theEH forwards TSE teenage letter to;l7 am delighted to have your letter to your aunt and uncle, of June 9, 1905.1 I am impressed by the exact details given (your fair was extraordinarily successful!) and most of all, of course, by the ruling passion, the vocation for the theatre showing itself so fully at the age of thirteen. AtSmith Academy, St. Louis;a1 that moment, IHarvard University;c2 was being graduated fromMilton Academy, Boston;a6 Smith Academy, St. Louis, and preparing for my Harvard examinations and for Milton. I often wonder what your life would have been, had you had the physique for a theatrical life. I am sure you would have made a success of it, but what would your private life have been, and what you would be like now? And what would I be like, if I had stuck to trying to become a professor of philosophy? These thoughts are too poignant to dwell upon for long.
I am glad of every morsel of account of your new establishment, and description of the way your abode is furnished. Would you like any Faber cookery books? I hope you will be able to give me a dinner at Hubbard Street next year. I am interested to know that your blood pressure, like mine, is always low: at least, it is less dangerous than a high blood pressure. You seem to have a very large number of pupils at Gibbs’: what are they going to be? how young are they? NoKinchin Smith, F.;a4 reply yet from Kinchin Smith. I don’t understand about my Hat: atAmericaDorset, Vermont;e3;a3 least, by the time I came to Dorset, I was wearing a new felt that I had bought in New York. I shall take my town hats to be cleaned.
MyHale, Emilyphotographs of;w7kneeling beside can of flowers, TSE's favourite;c6 favorite bed-room picture of you is really an enlargement I had made of a snapshot I took at Campden: in the garden, kneeling (after breakfast) over a can of flowers you had been picking, and with an expression on your face that I like to see. Besides, it has the special interest for me that you were looking at the photographer, myself, at the moment.
You must know that my need to write to you, is as great as your need to hear from me. But it is such a delight to me to know that you wish to get a letter from me twice a week.
1.Not traced.
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.
4.RevdDemant, Revd Vigo Auguste Vigo Auguste Demant (1893–1983), Anglican clergyman; leading exponent of ‘Christian Sociology’; vicar of St John-the-Divine, Richmond, Surrey, 1933–42: see Biographical Register.
11.JohnHayward, John Davy Hayward (1905–65), editor and critic: see Biographical Register.
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.
9.RevdSmyth, Revd Charles Charles Smyth (1903–87), ecclesiastical historian; Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge: see Biographical Register.