Letters of T.S. Eliot: 1898-1922

by T. S. Eliot

  I return the Allan papers.1 It would have been great fun to do Hogarth! or Wren or Inigo Jones (but there are no architects on the list). But [there’s] hardly need to answer it, is there? I appreciate also your always wanting to share things! Will you do one or more, and which?

  – Yes, I shd. love to write a book on Wren, or at least on the églises assassinées2 of London. But one would have to spend more money in travelling about seeing things than one would ever get out of a book. I long to see Rome and the seventeenth C. architecture there – having been to Vicenza. I shall go to Eastbourne first, perhaps somewhere abroad later, but can’t travel at all –

  About your Murry (returned herewith).3 I think the title too clearly betrays the nature of the review – I should be inclined to choose some neutral title. I should also be inclined to put the first paragraph (with the necessary alterations) at the end of the part about Murry. I like the draw-and-quarterly beginning of the second paragraph – but perhaps this is a counsel of journalistic inadvisability.

  Of course, I agree with your estimate. At the same time there is a distinct difference between the baseness of Murry’s verse and that of plain stupidity like Shanks, Squire and Turner.4 It is a distinction which belongs to psychology rather than art, and is not worth one’s time, but I am sure that it is there.

  Have you got the books? Many thanks for the use, I enjoyed them all.

  Would you like me to lend you my Cowley’s Poems – apparently complete, four little volumes in an old edition of British poets?

  There are many other things, in your recent letters and elsewhere, that I should like to discuss. But I have so much to do in order to get away next week – So take my blessing, and believe me

  Yours ever

  Tom.

  Is the Manning work nearly finished?5 Please explain my disappearance to Jackson, if you ever write to him.

  I don’t know Cowley’s letters at all, I am sorry to say.

  1–Unidentified.

  2–‘murdered churches’. See Maurice Barrès, La Grande Pitié des Églises de France (1914).

  3–RA, ‘“Vaulting Ambition”’, a review of JMM, Poems 1916–1920, and Clifford Bax, Antique Pageantry: A Book of Verse Plays, NS, 15 Oct. 1921. RA did not make the suggested changes.

  4–W. J. Turner (1889–1946), poet admired by WBY, now better remembered for biographies of Mozart, Beethoven and Berlioz.

  5–In Aug., Frederic Manning had asked RA to help him complete a biography of Sir William White. See Jonathan Marwil, Frederic Manning: An Unfinished Life (1988), 218.

  TO St John Hutchinson

  MS Texas

  [4? October 1921]

  [London]

  Dear Jack

  I’m very glad to hear that you consent and am sure it will be excellent. I am sending you a copy of the August Dial with my feeble contribution which will at least give you a notion of the length. Don’t bother about the Patrician, it was only a mild analogy from another sphere of journalism. Of course I should not consider your financial proposal.

  Thank you very much for your letter which I appreciate. I certainly look forward to seeing you before I go.

  Yours

  T.

  TO Mary Hutchinson

  PC Texas

  [Postmark 5 October 1921]

  9 Clarence Gate Gdns

  Thank you very much for your letter. I will come with pleasure on Saturday.

  T.S.E.

  TO Richard Aldington

  MS Texas

  Saturday [8 October 1921]

  [9 Clarence Gate Gdns]

  I wanted to write to you in time for the country post, but was simply so sleepy that I have had to lie down and sleep the whole time. I am writing tomorrow.

  Yours

  Tom.

  TO Richard Cobden-Sanderson

  PC Beinecke

  9 October 1921

  9 Clarence Gate Gdns

  Please excuse card – as I am very rushed and tired. I appreciate the trouble you have taken, and am much pleased with your proposal. I will write to you in January when I get back.

  With best wishes

  Sincerely

  T. S. Eliot

  TO Harold Monro

  MS Beinecke

  12 October 1921

  9 Clarence Gate Gdns

  Dear Monro,

  You need not apprehend the danger of another edition – if you sell Ara Vos Prec at all you will sell it before the poems are reprinted. I am only sorry to hear that your profits are limited to 4½d each.1 But you can safely put the book into your next catalogue, as I do not propose another edition until the volume can be considerably augmented.

  I am sorry that I cannot come in to your party tonight – but the reason is that I am going away tomorrow for three months treatment and rest cure – and should have gone already if there had not been so much to do before I left. I shall be back in January and hope to see you then.

  Sincerely

  T. S. Eliot

  1–Monro wrote on 8 Oct. that he had bought all the remaining copies of Ara Vos Prec – fifty plain and six signed – to be sold for 10s 6d plain and 18s 6d signed, ‘and if you find anyone expressing an interest please pass it along to me, as I believe in quick sales. I have had them about five days and so far have sold two to the trade and only made nine pence profit on them.’

  TO Richard Aldington

  TS Texas

  [13 October 1921]

  9 Clarence Gate Gdns

  My dear Richard,

  You should know that if I have not written to you more quickly, on such an occasion, it is not that you have not been constantly in my mind. It is almost incredible that such generosity and friendship could exist at all, and I want you to know that the assurance that such friendship does exist, is in itself an immense support. I really cannot say enough – but it is not merely quantity of expression, but impossibility of saying what I feel. I should like to treasure your cheque as a symbol. If I have any notion of what your situation is, and the burdens you have, it is a very great sacrifice. I have not cashed your cheque, and have no immediate intention of doing so. Nor do I wish you to think that the money is where it could not be used by you should some emergency arise in your own life in the meantime. What I propose to do is to keep it in a safe place. Should I be forced to use it, I should write to you and tell you frankly what my condition was; but if, before hearing from me, you have need of it yourself, draw the money, and let me know. I think I could provide myself in any great need elsewhere – though I should prefer to use yours, because of our relations. I hope not to have to use any of it. Of course, I cannot tell what my expenses will be. But when the present crisis is over and I am back at the bank I shall know where I am. Mind you, I shall go back to the bank in any case for long enough to compensate more or less for their consideration and kindness, for they have been good to me – but beyond that I simply do not, at present, look ahead. I shall simply concentrate on getting as well as I can. I am going to Margate tomorrow, and expect to stay at least a month. I am supposed to be alone, but I could [not] bear the idea of starting this treatment quite alone in a strange place, and I have asked my wife to come with me and stay with me as long as she is willing. After that she will return here. I hope that Margate will do her a little good too, as she certainly needs it as much as I do. After that I propose to go abroad, probably to a small cottage with a verandah which Lady Rothermere has offered me, in the mountains back of Monte Carlo (La Turbie). I want Vivien to cross over with me, and go somewhere healthy. If she does, would you be able to house a small cat which we are very fond of?We are having great trouble finding a good home for it for this short time she will be in Margate, and for a longer period I can’t think of anywhere it would be safer or happier than with you. We should have to arrange to get it down to you – perhaps Vivien could come down and have lunch with you and leave it. I should not want to put you to any trouble. It is a very good mouser.

&n
bsp; My address at present will be Albemarle Hotel, Cliftonville, Margate. I have not betrayed it to anyone but yourself and the Bank, so do not expose it to any person. Do write to me when you can spare the time or have a mind to (I mean whenever), and if I only reply by an occasional postcard, believe me, nonetheless, ton bien dévoué [your very devoted]

  Tom.

  And what do you think of Fanfare,1 which quotes our testimonials which appear much more enthusiastic thus extracted than they appeared to the writers, embodied in the letters. I think it was generous of you to give them a poem.2

  1–Fanfare: A Musical Causerie, ed. Leigh Henry, ran for seven fortnightly numbers from 1 Oct. 1921 to 1 Jan. 1922. The first issue carried other messages of support for the ‘Fanfare Movement’ from de Falla, Satie, Dorothy Richardson and Duncan Grant. TSE had written: ‘Your venture is extraordinarily interesting; you should have no difficulty in eclipsing the current musical periodicals. I should consider myself most happy to be numbered among your contributors.’ He did not subsequently appear in its pages.

  2–‘At a Gate by the Way’, in the first issue.

  TO St John Hutchinson

  TS Texas

  13 October 1921

  9 Clarence Gate Gdns

  Dear Jack,

  I think your [London] Letter is admirable,1 and very much to the point. There is only one thing that occurred to me afterwards. In the Dial’s last note to me acknowledging my October Letter I thought I detected a slight note of disapproval at my having said so much about Shaw’s book2 which had already been reviewed. I had been very hard put about to find enough material for that Letter.3 It struck me that what you say about George Moore tended toward the review, and I think that for the Dial’s purposes it would be better if you could condense or shorten it a bit. One treats books rather from the cover inward, so to speak, and can divagate as much as one likes, but not stop too long over anything. The Chauve Souris4 can serve as a starting point for anything that comes into your head about the theatre –

  Anyway, I am sure it will be first rate. We are off tomorrow to Margate. With love to Mary and best wishes

  yours ever

  T.S.E.

  I am very grateful to you for writing this Letter. It’s a great help.

  1–Hutchinson’s effort was to be rejected by the Dial.

  2–Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah (1921).

  3–‘This is lively at least and surprisingly tolerant of Shaw,’ TSE wrote on Valerie Eliot’s copy in 1959.

  4–Le Chauve-Souris, a Paris review produced by the Russian theatre director Nikita Balieff, was brought to the London Pavilion by C. B. Cochran on 2 Sept. It was extremely successful and moved to the Apollo Theatre on 10 Oct.

  Vivien Eliot TO Scofield Thayer

  MS Beinecke

  13 October 1921

  9 Clarence Gate Gdns

  Dear Scofield,

  Tom has had rather a serious breakdown, and has had to stop all work and go away for three months. He has to follow a strict regimen, and may only read (for pleasure, not profit) two hours a day. Before he went he fortunately secured St John Hutchinson to do the London Letter for the Dial. I have just written to Mr Seldes to tell him, and also to say that Hutchinson would do the next one if this is satisfactory.

  Do you want to wait until February for the review of Marianne Moore’s poems? If so, Tom could do it for you in January, and would like to. I forgot to mention this to Mr Seldes, so now I suppose I shall have to write again! Unless you will – you have nothing to do I presume, and look at my position. I have not nearly finished my own nervous breakdown yet.

  Tom is going to be in England for about a month from now, (he is at Margate) and then will be able to go and occupy Lady Rothermere’s villa at La Tourbie [in the Alpes Maritimes]. By this you will see that T. and Lady Rothermere have clicked. A Quarterly had been arranged between them, which Tom was to edit in his ‘spare’ time, and to get what pickings he could from the inadequate sum laid down by her in the name of Literature. Everything is now postponed until January.

  Towards the end of November I want to go – somewhere. I don’t know yet, and it doesn’t much matter, but I must escape from England or it will smother me. Have been trying to escape for five–six years!

  I do expect to come to London in the spring or perhaps before. Meanwhile I may appear in Vienna.

  Vivien

  Tom sent his love to you.

  TO Richard Aldington

  PC Texas

  [Postmark 15 October 1921]

  [London]

  The review of Murry in TLS. is a revolting mess of torrid tastelessness and hypocritical insensibility.1 I have been further exasperated by insults from the American Consulate, who furthermore wish to collect Income Tax from me. I must get my naturalisation papers in order and wish I knew some prominent person in the Home Office to press it forward. It is difficult to keep calm!

  T.

  1–[Ernest de Selincourt], ‘Buried Treasure’, a review of JMM’s Poems 1916–1920, TLS, 13 Oct. 1921.

  Vivien Eliot TO Violet Schiff

  MS BL

  Wed[nesday] 26 October 1921

  The Albemarle Hotel, Cliftonville,

  Margate

  My dear Violet,

  I have been so anxious to know how you were. I have tried to write each day, but have had so many letters to write for Tom. And it is so difficult to write with people about. The last I heard of you was that you had another temperature. I do wish you could have the cause of your temperatures discovered. It would give me hope that mine might one day be fathomed. As you know I have just exactly the same lot as yourself, hateful stupid temperatures for no real reason at all. Do write and let us hear how you both are. We wonder every day. You will be pleased to hear that Tom is getting on amazingly. It is not quite a fortnight yet, but he looks already younger, and fatter and nicer. He is quite good, and not unhappy, keeping regular hours and being out in this wonderful air nearly all day.

  I am going back tomorrow. Tom will stay here at any rate for another two weeks. Please let us hear news of you.

  With love,

  Yours ever

  Vivien

  This is such a nice, comfortable, and inexpensive little hotel. Very lucky.

  TO Julian Huxley

  MS Fondren

  26 October 1921

  The Albemarle Hotel, Cliftonville

  Dear Huxley,

  I hope you will not mind my writing to you for advice. I have been ordered away from London for three months by a nerve specialist, and have been here a fortnight. I went to this specialist on account of his great name, which I knew would bear weight with my employers. But since I have been here I have wondered whether he is quite the best man for me, as he is known as a nerve man, and I want rather a specialist in psychological troubles. Ottoline Morrell has strongly advised me to go to Vittoz,1 in Lausanne, and incidentally mentioned that you had been to him. This is all that I know about him. There are so few good specialists in this line that one wants to have more precise testimony of a man’s value before trying him – especially as I cannot afford to go to Switzerland, which is so expensive, unless the benefit is likely to justify the expense.

  So would you mind letting me know, as soon as you can, whether you consider that Vittoz benefited you, and how brilliant a physician you think him? I should be very grateful indeed.

  If you recommend him, perhaps you know also of some moderate priced pension or hotel in Lausanne?

  I hope that this address will find you without loss of time. I ought to have confirmed it from Aldous whom I saw just before leaving town, but I did not think seriously about Vittoz till the last few days. I particularly want your opinion of him as a psychologist.

  With best wishes,

  Sincerely yours,

  T. S. Eliot

  1–Dr Roger Vittoz, Swiss psychiatrist, see Glossary of Names. In his copy of the third French edn (1921) of Vittoz’s Traitement des Psychonévroses par la Rééducation
du Controle Cérébral, TSE marked a paragraph concerning ‘Aboulie’ (‘want of will’) (35); the sentence ‘There is, in fact, often an excessive excitability which makes the sufferer aware of the slightest noise and is frequently a cause of insomnia’ (37); and against ‘The muscles are at first more or less contracted and sometimes painful’ (47), he wrote ‘handwriting’.

  Vivien Eliot TO Mary Hutchinson

  MS Texas

  Friday 28 October [1921]

  The Albemarle Hotel, Cliftonville

  My dear Mary,

  How are you?

  I have started Tom well, and he shows great improvement already. He looks younger and better looking. This is a very nice tiny hotel, marvellously comfortable and inexpensive. Margate is rather queer, and we don’t dislike it.

  I am leaving on Sunday or Monday. I think Tom will do quite well here for another two or three weeks. He is not, so far, unhappy, or minding anything. Do write him a nice letter. He really must not write letters, so perhaps he would only send a short answer but you would understand that. I hope you will let me come to tea next week, if you have any time? Did you go to Rothermere’s ‘intellectual party’? What a woman. With love, and from Tom