[No surviving envelope]
DidKinchin Smith, F.;a6 you ever receive the Trojan Women from Kinchin Smith? He said that he had sent it. I hope I did not give you a false impression of the play, but that you will find it both possible and suitable. Its topicality might not be so apparent in America as in Europe.
I received your letter of the 1st December. I know that for the last part of the term you must be extremely busy, butHale, Emilyas director ('producer');v9Christmas pantomime;b5 I hope that afterwards you will tell me more of your Christmas play – but afterwards must mean, after your Christmas vacation and after you have time in the new year. IPerkins, Edith (EH's aunt);h6 am somewhat relieved to learn of the probably [sc. probable] future for Aunt Edith, if she lives the longer, as I should think likely. OfPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle)withdrawn;g3 course I am sorry that your uncle should have retired so much into himself: surely the causes of this have nothing to do with you – it is not only you from whom he has departed – and perhaps within he is very deeply lonely. I have always felt that in some way or other his life had not been altogether happy and fulfilled, though superficially he has had the career, in his later years at least, of a successful minister, and surely a very popular one. And sometimes a growing awareness of a disguised loneliness makes people withdraw rather than reach forward to others.
IWhiting, Isabel;a3 return the letter from Isobel Whiting, which is certainly a very sweet personal one. IEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister)as correspondent;d8 have read the letter from Marion, which is certainly as affectionate as her powers of expression make possible.
Itravels, trips and plansTSE's 1947 summer in America;g1itinerary;a7 have put myself down for a sea passage in April, and must go in again to the Cunard Line tomorrow to discuss the possibility of priority. Priority, oddly enough, means not the Queen Elizabeth (the only passenger liner now running) but some smaller cargo boat. I shall also see whether it it possible to make an air reservation for late February or March, in case there should be a relapse. TheSheffield, Alfred Dwight ('Shef' or 'Sheff')reports on Henry's condition;c6 account which Sheff transmits from the doctor is certainly very good; andEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother)writes to TSE despite illness;l1 I have had this week a letter from Henry in his own hand. However good the recovery, I yet feel that it is merely a question of time, though the time may stretch out even to the end of next year. Meanwhile I must reconcile myself to the fact that I shall not accomplish so much this winter as I had hoped to do. The uncertainty is itself a strain. I have had recently several offers from America, tempting in themselves but undesirable in the circumstances. OneColumbia Universityoffers TSE Bampton Lectureship;a4 from Columbia, to deliver a set of four lectures, the first on a foundation to be called ‘The Bampton Lectures in America’, and well paid,1 I should have declined in any case: for they have to be on some theological subject – I could not prepare such a set of lectures in the time, and the subject could not fit in with what I want to do in the next two years. MyNotes Towards the Definition of Culturerepresents complete statement of TSE's beliefs;a9 culture book will contain all I want to say, I think, about everything except poetry, for a long time to come: theJohnson, Dr SamuelTSE's projected Lives of the Poets book;a7 Johnson, andCocktail Party, The;b3 a play, and another book on poetry which is shaping in my mind, should occupy me for a long time to come. If'Milton II'drafted;a5 IPrinceton UniversityJohnson lectures revamped for;b8 can make the Milton good (I have just completed the first draft) and put the Johnson into temporary order good enough to deliver as two lectures at Princeton, that will be all I can do in these next months. ILibrary of Congress, Washingtonsolicits lecture;a2 have also had offers from Virginia, from the National Art Gallery in Washington, and from the Library of Congress – the last for a lecture for which they would pay a thousand dollars, if they might publish it first: whichBritish AcademyTSE's Milton lecture for;a1 excludes the Milton, which must be issued by the British Academy.
IFamily Reunion, The1946 Mercury revival;i2TSE attends again in company;a3 regret very much that you cannot see this production of the Family Re-union [sic]. ISpeaight, Robertattends Family Reunion with TSE;e4 go again to see it next week withLambs, theaccompany TSE to Family Reunion;a5 Bobbie Speaight and the Lambs. NowFamily Reunion, TheSpanish translation of;i3 there is a question of its being translated for Madrid: MrRojas, José Antonio Muñoz;a1. Leopoldo Panero of the Embassy, and Mr. Munos [sc. Muñoz] Rojas want to translate it.2 I went for sherry to Panero’s last week: strange to be in a room of Spaniards, a people with which I am not really acquainted – some with strange names, like the Marquis and Marchioness of the Holy Cross.
ITucker, J. Josephine;a1 have had a cable from Miss Sophie Tucker,3 and am debating how I should answer it. IConcord Academy, MassachusettsTSE's Commencement Address to;a4 feel I should only give a provisional answer – and I am not sure that one should accept such an engagement provisionally. Suppose that I had to come earlier – well, probably I could let her know in time to get someone else: but suppose that I was there, and that Henry was then dying – however, I must send her a long cable and leave it to her. But I could not have faced Chambersburg as well: I know how these commencement addresses take it out of one. It’s much more difficult than reading a paper.
When I go to bed tonight, I shall imagine you lying on your sofa and listening to a symphony concert. I think of buying a wireless set next year: we have some good music now on a new programme. I wish we could listen to the same concert at the same time!
I hope that your next letter will tell me where to write during December. And during the first two weeks of January you will only expect a few short notes in handwriting from me.
1.The Bampton Lectures at Columbia University, New York, were established by a bequest from Ada Byron Bampton Tremaine. They were inspired by the Bampton Lectureship founded at Oxford in 1780, under the will of the Revd John Bampton, Canon of Salisbury. Future lecturers in the series included C. H. Dodd, Lewis Munford, Anthony Blunt, Paul Tillich, Northrop Frye, Fred Hoyle, Jacob Bronowski and Anthony Kenny.
2.JoséRojas, José Antonio Muñoz Antonio Muñoz Rojas (1909–2009), poet, translator and editor.
TSE to Dr Francisco Carreras, 6 Dec. 1946: ‘I must tell you that a week or more before I got your letter I had already accepted a proposal from Senor Leopoldo Panero that he and Munoz Rojas should translate it. This was the first proposal I had had for translating this play and as both Senor Panero and Senor Rohas had collaborated in a small volume of selections of my poems recently published in Madrid, I saw no reason for not accepting their proposal.’
3.TSETucker, J. Josephine mischievously implies that EH’s boss, J. Josephine Tucker, Head of Concord Academy, 1940–9, might be the Ukrainian-born American singer, comedian and actor Sophie Tucker (1886–1966), ‘Last of the Red-Hot Mamas’. Josephine Tucker invited TSE to give the Commencement address at Concord Academy in 1946.
3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: see Biographical Register.
1.Marian/MarionEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister) Cushing Eliot (1877–1964), fourth child of Henry Ware Eliot and Charlotte Eliot: 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.
5.AiméeLamb, Aimée LambLambs, theLamb, Aimée
3.DrPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle) John Carroll Perkins (1862–1950), Minister of King’s Chapel, Boston: see Biographical Register.
2.JoséRojas, José Antonio Muñoz Antonio Muñoz Rojas (1909–2009), poet, translator and editor.
8.AlfredSheffield, Alfred Dwight ('Shef' or 'Sheff') Dwight Sheffield (1871–1961) – ‘Shef’ or ‘Sheff’ – husband of TSE’s eldest sister, taught English at University School, Cleveland, Ohio, and was an English instructor, later Professor, of Group Work at Wellesley College. His publications include Lectures on the Harvard Classics: Confucianism (1909) and Grammar and Thinking: a study of the working conceptions in syntax (1912).
2.RobertSpeaight, Robert Speaight (1904–77), actor, producer and author, was to create the role of Becket in Murder in the Cathedral in 1935: see Biographical Register.
3.TSETucker, J. Josephine mischievously implies that EH’s boss, J. Josephine Tucker, Head of Concord Academy, 1940–9, might be the Ukrainian-born American singer, comedian and actor Sophie Tucker (1886–1966), ‘Last of the Red-Hot Mamas’. Josephine Tucker invited TSE to give the Commencement address at Concord Academy in 1946.
1.AnWhiting, Isabel old, close friend of EH’s, Isabel Whiting lived for some years at 11 Mason Street, Cambridge, MA; later at 9 Phillips Place, Cambridge, MA.