[No surviving envelope]

T. S.Eliot
EmilyHale
MS
Faber & Faber Ltd
8 January 1947
Dearest Emily

Iappearance (TSE's)hernia;b9deferred operation for;a2 hope this will be legible when you get it. Some of your pencilled letters have not been easy to read. I have just had 2 letters from you addressed to the hospital; for which I thank you: and am ashamed to say that I have not yet been pronounced fit for the operation. Cough and slight temperature, the trouble.1 AfterShamley Wood, SurreyChristmas at;a5 the disastrous Christmas at Shamley (though I must have taken it with me, or picked it up on the way). Weather has been very foul – I lie in bed, looking out at another wing of the hospital. Ialcoholwhisky as medicine;b1 have had visitors, and flowers, andSitwell, Edithsends TSE whisky in hospital;b8 having been ordered whisky by the surgeon, now possess 3 bottles! oneBosanquet, Theodorasends TSE whisky in hospital;a3 fromTrevelyan, Marysmuggles TSE's whisky into hospital;a8 Theodora Bosanquet2 (via Mary Trevelyan) and two from Edith Sitwell.

But this is all very vexing. I hope the operation will be performed this week; but the cough is very tenacious. I shall write often, briefly like this.

I can write in pencil with less agony than in ink.

Your loving
Tom.

1.Henry Eliot to Donald Gallup, 19 Jan. 1947: ‘TSE […] did not have the hernia operation because he had a cold when he got to the hospital. However (strange as it may seem) they kept him at the hospital to cure the cold and I do not doubt that the rest did him much good. I think he may have been afraid of pneumonia since I described to him its unaccountable ways.’

2.Theodora Bosanquet (1880–1961) was Henry James’s secretary, 1907–16: her memoir Henry James at Work (1924) was no. 3 of the Hogarth Essays. A graduate of University College London, she was Executive Secretary of the International Federation of University Women, 1920–35; literary editor of Time & Tide, 1935–43. Other works include Harriet Martineau (1927) and Paul Valéry (1933). See Catherine Clay, Time & Tide’: The feminist and cultural politics of a modern magazine (Edinburgh, 2018)

alcohol, as pleasure, as temptation, as weakness, whisky as necessity, whisky as suppressant, as aid to sleep, and American Prohibition, the 'bedtime Guinness', too much sherry, whisky as medicine, at The Swan, Commercial Road, GCF's pillaged whisky, and buying cheap delicious wine, 'whisky' vs 'whiskey', erroneous belief about brandy, Guinness before Mass, asperity on port, at JDH and TSE's dinner, Château Latour 1874, Château Leoville-Poyferré 1915, fine wines at JDH's, wartime whisky, bottle of beer with wireless, 'dry sherry' and rationing,
appearance (TSE's), 'pudding-faced', TSE remembers wearing make-up, of a third-rate actor, likened to a crook, of a Chicago magnate, of a dissipated movie actor, of a debauched British statesman, hair-style, lobster-skinned, of a brutal Roman emperor, of a superior comic actor, of Maurice Evans, proud of his legs, wart on scalp, baldness, 'in spots', unlikely treatment for, 'as a bat', worsened by travel, due to worry, may require wig, in retreat, reasserts itself, confines TSE to single barber, eyes, dark, damaged by teeth-poisoning, figure, 'obese', altered by war, hernia, described, deferred operation for, recovery from, nose, the Eliot nostril, a Norman nose, too thin for pince-nez, teeth, 'nothing but chalk', EH severe on the state of, 'stumps', blamed for hair-loss, liable to be removed, blamed for rheumatism, false upper plate, plate reconstructed, state of, new false teeth, keystone tooth removed, remaining upper teeth removed, new plate,
Bosanquet, Theodora, visits Shamley, sends TSE whisky in hospital,

3.TheodoraBosanquet, Theodora Bosanquet (1880–1961) had been Henry James’s amanuensis, 1907–16. See Larry McMurty, ‘Almost Forgotten Women’ (on Bosanquet and Lady Rhondda), New York Review of Books, 7 Nov. 2002, 51–2.

Shamley Wood, Surrey, TSE issued standing invitation to, his situation as paying guest, daily and weekly life at, dramatis personae, Christmas at, ideal situation for illness, overheated, depressingly female, TSE leads fire practice at, TSE takes week's rest from, its melodramas, TSE quarantined from, its lack of music, and Reay's homecoming, TSE distributes food parcels at, TSE's gradual removal from, TSE's post-war week's holiday at, post-hernia convalescence at,
Sitwell, Edith, TSE likens EH's portrait to, which displeases EH, which likeness TSE presently disclaims, shockingly altered, now seems more herself, brings Pavel Tchelitchew to tea, to tea on New Year's Day, at Harold Monro's funeral, dragoons TSE into poetry reading, at which she is rated, at odds with Dorothy Wellesley, at Poetry Reading for China, sends TSE whisky in hospital,
see also Sitwells, the

2.EdithSitwell, Edith Sitwell (1887–1964), poet, biographer, anthologist, novelist: see Biographical Register.

Trevelyan, Mary, recalling TSE's foggy adventure, and Student Movement House, describes situation in liberated Europe, reports from liberated Belgium, returns to London, smuggles TSE's whisky into hospital, significance of VHE's death explained to, TSE describes relationship with EH to, a 'kindly thorn',

2.MaryTrevelyan, Mary Trevelyan (1897–1983), Warden of Student Movement House, worked devotedly to support the needs of overseas students in London (her institution was based at 32 Russell Square, close to the offices of F&F; later at 103 Gower Street); founder and first governor of International Students House, London. Trevelyan left an unpublished memoir of her friendship with TSE – ‘The Pope of Russell Square’ – whom she long desired to marry. See further Biographical Register.