Letters of T.S. Eliot: 1898-1922
Page 80
Affect
Vivien
TO Richard Aldington
PC Texas
[Postmark 29 October 1921]
The Albemarle Hotel, Cliftonville
I have done my best, not having seen the book.1 That makes four: Ezra’s Mauberley,2 M. Moore,3 and Edith Sitwell.4 I am quite distressed about E. P. I’m afraid MacC is no good.5Thanks for letters, I have much I should like to say to you.
Yrs. affcty
T.S.E.
Did you do Cazamian’s book?6 Should like to see it some time, though it sounds shallow. Should like to discuss Marivaux7 with you.
1–TSE had written to Bruce Richmond about the reviewing of poetry in the TLS, where notices were all unsigned (see postcard to RA, 3 Nov. 1921 below). RA took offence at a notice by F. T. Dalton (1855–1927), an assistant editor, likening the poems in Hymen, by his wife H. D., to ‘prose sentences capriciously cut into strips’ (27 Oct.). An unsigned review in the NS (3 Dec.) retorted: ‘At no work could be flung with less justice the customary taunt, “prose cut up into lengths”.’
2–See brief notice (author unrecorded) of EP, Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, in TLS, 1 July 1920, 427: ‘The poems in this beautifully printed book have the qualities of structure, rhythm, and sincerity, but they are needlessly obscure … If he could forget this enmity [to the semi-artistic public], his poems would be sweeter and more effective. As they are, they have a mathematical charm.’
3–See review [by F. T. Dalton] of Marianne Moore, Poems, in TLS, 21 July 1921, 471: ‘Miss Moore does not seem to have very much to say … she has no poetic style.’
4–See review [by Basil de Selincourt] of Edith Sitwell, The Wooden Pegasus, in TLS, 8 July 1920, 43: ‘The paraphernalia of verse are instruments of her disdain, metaphor is the chief mode in which she reveals her alienation from the rest of the world.’
5–NS (ed. MacCarthy) did not review the volumes by EP, Moore and Sitwell.
6–[Edgell Rickword], review of Louis Cazamian, L’Evolution Psychologique et la Littérature en Angleterre 1600–1914, in TLS, 20 Oct. 1921.
7–Pierre de Marivaux (1688–1763), dramatist.
Henry Eliot TO His Mother
TS Houghton
30 October 1921
1037 Rush St, Chicago
Dear Mother:
It has been rainy today and Saturday, and I have spent a luxurious Sunday reading. It is my intention to move from this flat and find a single room, for the reason (which will be exceedingly difficult to explain to anyone) that I wish to do a lot of regular and serious reading. That idea will be so incomprehensible to most of the people I know that I am sure that they will think I am disappointed in love or that I am a neurotic crank. But I find such social life as I know here very trifling; possibly my travels have given me a new point of view, but I know that I have always wanted to read and never want to go about much. Peckham likes social life but it amazes me that people do not outgrow that sort of thing. It seems to me to belong to one’s youth.
Peckham says that the preamble to your will, in which you describe yourself as a citizen of Missouri, is not evidence that you are such. The fact that you were a citizen of Missouri when you made your will, in other words, can easily be disproved by evidence that you have changed your citizenship since. However, I would get legal advice on that, and would do whatever is necessary to settle your status as a citizen of Massachusetts. I cannot believe that Mr Shepley is right. I think it might be well for me to go down to St Louis to see him before you finally decide to change your will. I shall have to go there to get the stock certificates, and I might as well do whatever other business I can while there. How about your Missouri state income tax? Did you make a return, or was it unnecessary? I cannot remember.
Uncle Ed has written asking me to handle the printing of his family history. I was very strongly tempted to write him that our firm would charge him a fee of $200 for the work. Of course Uncle Ed expects me to do the work free, which exasperates me in view of his charges for family work. I have, however, written him that I will do it. I am afraid that if I retaliate in that way he will retaliate further by sending you a bill for consultation. Has he ever sent any additional bill for advice, since he settled the estate? I do not think that I or any of us are in a position to offend him, since we never know when we may want to call upon him for some matter, as he is the only member of the family in St Louis now. I do not think he intends to send you any bill for miscellaneous advice, or for things such as this Mercantile matter.
I do not think the oversight of the printing of this book1 will be very burdensome or take much time, though it is rather a nuisance. I am also getting a Christmas card printed for Tom Dawes [Eliot].2 I do not mind things much unless they take my evenings or Sundays. Last Sunday I went to the Harveys for supper – fare $2.80 – staying overnight. I also went to the South Side in the morning to hear a Dr Pulsford preach. I had read one of his sermons and thought it good. He is a friend of Sally Scott’s, or rather she is one of his admirers. I had also thought of getting a room in that neighborhood (it is close to Chicago University). Dr Pulsford said that Sally Scott was going to spend the winter taking a course of some sort at the University. Since hearing that, I am not sure that I want to go down there. I am afraid she has a tendency to fasten herself on relatives. The buildings of Chicago University are very beautiful, and the grounds are wide and well kept. It is on the great wide boulevard which was, at the time of the World’s Fair, the Midway Plaisance. I should like to take a correspondence course there, and to have access to their library. The buildings, which are of stone and very fine, reminded me, in a way, of Oxford; and the suggestion of books and leisure was delightful. I believe there are a good many very nice people in that neighborhood. I wish I knew people who were interested in books and study. The general atmosphere of this flat is like a college dormitory—no privacy or quiet.
Vivien always recites some account of her migraines and malaises in her letters. But I suppose that is natural; it is a relief to talk about one’s pains. I do not think she takes proper care of herself, though. I have seen her drink coffee at midnight. I have a feeling that sub-consciously (or unconsciously) she likes the role of invalid; and that, liking as she does to be petted, ‘made a fuss over’, condoled and consoled, she unconsciously encourages her breakdowns instead of throwing them off by a sort of nervous resistance. It is hard to tell how much is physical and how much mental and uncontrollable by will power; but I think that if she had more of ‘the Will to Be Well’ she would have less suffering. To acquire this sort of willpower unaided is something like pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps; but I think some strong impulse from outside, some change in her circumstances, might call forth the necessary willpower to be well. She needs something to take her mind off herself; something to absorb her entire attention. The same, of course, is true of Margaret. Of course, Vivien really suffers pain, and on the other hand, she is not so supine as Margaret.
A good long period of quiet will do Tom immense good. Of course complete solitude might be depressing, and what he needs, I think, is change more than rest. It may be better for him to have Vivien along for a while, at least better than having no one to talk to, but I think it would be good for him to be with congenial friends without her for a while, too. The great thing is to relax. The idea of going to Lady Rothermere’s villa near Monte Carlo sounds fine to me.3 New and beautiful scenes will be good for him. I hope he can do that.
If you give a Boston lawyer your copy of the will to make a new one from, I think you had better send me a copy of the new will before you sign if, and let me take it to Mr Shepley and see whether it conforms to their notions of their part as ‘ancillary administrator’ or whatever it is. I should like to write Mr Shepley or see him and find out just what he means by his statements as to Missouri claiming you as citizen. I think he misunderstood.
Your affectionate son,
Henry
Have you a cook or are you still eating outsi
de?
1–Edward Cranch Eliot, The Family of William Greenleaf Eliot and Abby Adams Eliot (1921). After the author’s death, HWE was to revise the book for a second edition (1931).
2–A cousin.
3–In the event, TSE decided to go to Lausanne instead.
TO Julian Huxley
MS Fondren
31 October 1921
Albemarle Hotel, Cliftonville,
Margate
My dear Huxley,
Thank you very much indeed for your very full and satisfactory letter.1 I shall go to Vittoz. Meanwhile I shall beg your patience for two more questions.
How long a course does Vittoz usually give? Is there ordinarily a definite term?
Is it best to write to him in advance, in order to make certain of having Vittoz himself? If so, (and in any case) what is his address?
He sounds just the man I want. I am glad you confirm my opinion of English doctors. They seem to specialise either in nerves or insanity!
With thanks, and regret for troubling you again.
Sincerely,
T. S. Eliot
1–Not preserved.
TO Henry Eliot
PC Harvard
[Postmark 1 November 1921]
Cliftonville, Margate
(But write to C. G. Gdns)
Have been here a 4tnight,&may stay several weeks longer. Very good sea air, and quiet. Will keep you posted.
Yours aff.
T.
Vivien Eliot TO Bertrand Russell
MS McMaster
1 November 1921 [dated by Russell]
9 Clarence Gate Gdns, N.W.1
Dear Bertie,
It was so nice actually to get a letter from you again. We were both pleased.
As you probably know, Tom is having a bad nervous – or so called – breakdown. He is away, and I am answering all his letters. Otherwise of course he would have written himself. He is at present at Margate, of all cheerful spots! But he seems to like it!
In a short time I hope he will go to Switzerland, to see Dr Vittoz. We have heard so much about him. I think I remember you speaking of him too.
We both send very many congratulations, and Tom says he is quite sure the baby1will have pointed ears, so you need not be anxious. Even if not pointed at birth, they will sharpen in time.
With love from both, and very glad you are back.
Vivien Eliot
1–John Conrad Russell was born on 16 Nov., 1921 (d. 1987). TSE’s poem about BR, ‘Mr. Apollinax’, mentions ‘His pointed ears’.
TO The Editor of The Times Literary Supplement
Published 3 November 1921
Sir,
I am obliged to Professor Saintsbury for his suggestions,1 of which I shall make use, if he will permit me, on some later occasion. As I greatly respect Mr Saintsbury, so I would not be behind him in my testimony of that great neglected poet, great neglected dramatist, and great neglected critic, John Dryden.
I only regret that the conclusion to be drawn from Mr Saintsbury’s letter appears to contradict my own conclusions from the study of Caroline verse. Mr Saintsbury appears to believe that these poets represent not merely a generation, but almost a particular theory of poetry. The ‘second thoughts’ to which he alludes are, I think, and as I tried to point out, frequent in the work of many other poets besides, of other times and other languages.2 I have mentioned Chapman, and the contemporaries of Dante. I do not believe that the author of Hamlet and Measure for Measure was invariably satisfied with ‘the first simple, obvious, natural thought and expression of thought’; or that the author of the ‘Phoenix and Turtle’ whistled as he went for want of thought. Nor can I believe that Swinburne thought twice, or even once, before he wrote
Time with a gift of tears,
Grief with a glass that ran.3
On the subject of Caroline poetry, there is no one to whom so much gratitude is due, or to whom I should listen with as much deference, as Mr Saintsbury.
I am, Sir, your obliged humble
CONTRIBUTOR.
1–George Saintsbury (1845–1933), editor of Minor Poets of the Caroline Period (1905–21), proffered his letter, published on 27 Oct., as ‘an annotation’ to TSE’s ‘The Metaphysical Poets’.
2–Saintsbury argued that Dryden used ‘“metaphysics” as equivalent to “second thoughts,” things that come after the natural first; and, once more, this definition would, I think, fit all the poetry commonly called “metaphysical”, whether it be amatory, religious, satirical, panegyric, or merely trifling’.
3–Saintsbury recalled a friend’s reaction to hearing these lines from Atalanta, ‘Don’t you see that the fellow just wrote it the other way and turned it round to make fools like you admire?’ and added that Swinburne ‘here and elsewhere, was “right metaphysical” in his method’.
TO Richard Aldington
PC Texas
[Postmark 3 November 1921]
Albemarle Hotel, Cliftonville,
Margate
So R[ichmond] didn’t print my letter1 – perhaps (1) because I had another letter in (2) because he printed yrs.2 (3) because there wasn’t room (4) because I complained that all the verse worth reviewing at all had been treated the same way.
Yrs. aff.
T.
Perhaps he suspected collusion. The envelope [was] addressed to him personally so there should be no mistake. Hope to hear from you soon.
1–See postcard to RA, 29 Oct., above.
2–RA claimed that ‘H. D. is the greatest living writer of vers libre’, and that her poems showed ‘a poetic personality both original and beautiful’.
3–Prufrock would ‘hardly be read by many with enjoyment’ (TLS review [by F. T. Dalton], 21 June 1917).
TO Sydney Schiff
MS BL
Friday night [4? November 1921]
Albemarle Hotel, Cliftonville
My dear Sydney,
I am so sorry about the MSS – Vivien told me – but as you told me to keep it, and as I am always uneasy in the possession of other people’s MSS., I had locked it up in my box at the Bank safes. I will get it out for you when I come up to town, and do hope you will not be grossly inconvenienced by the delay. It will not be very long now.
I hope that your being in town is not bad news, and that you are both making progress. I should have liked to hear from you, but of course did not expect to, knowing that you had much to do and bad health and worries. I have done a rough draft of part of part III [of The Waste Land], but do not know whether it will do, and must wait for Vivien’s opinion as to whether it is printable. I have done this while sitting in a shelter on the front – as I am out all day except when taking rest. But I have written only some fifty lines, and have read nothing, literally – I sketch the people, after a fashion, and practise scales on the mandoline.
I rather dread being in town at all – one becomes dependent, too, on sea or mountains, which give some sense of security in which one relaxes – and hope to be only a day or two. I hope to have good news of you both from Vivienne – she tells me very little about her own health, in spite of my complaints.
With best love to you and Violet
Yrs aff.
Tom.
TO Richard Aldington
MS Texas
[5? November 1921]
Albemarle Hotel, Cliftonville
Dear Richard,
Just got your article on Cowley.1 You are doing, I think, very valuable work with this kind of criticism; though its value will hardly be appreciated immediately by more than a dozen people. It makes Manning look pretty cheap.2 The ignorance about the subject is so universal that the erudition will hardly be noticed. Gassendi,3 for example, is no more t
han a name to me, and I know nothing of T. de Viau4 and the others. I hope that eventually you will be able to work your French and English researches into a rather big book, which will make an impression.
In same issue I see myself decried by one S. Magee5 (¿MacCarthy himselDf? or only some blood brother?)
Yrs in haste
TSE
1–RA, ‘Cowley and the French Epicureans’, NS 23 (5 Nov. 1921), 113–14 (repr. in Literary Studies and Reviews, 1924).
2–Apparently undervaluing RA’s work, Frederic Manning was dilatory in paying him the agreed £50 for his help with the biography of Sir William White; see note to TSE’s letter of 3 Oct., above.
3–Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655), French philosopher and mathematician.
4–Théophile de Viau (1590–1626), French poet.
5–S. Magee, ‘On Melody’ (NS 18 [5 Nov. 1921], 134–5) – or rather the lack of it in the arts–‘because our prudes hate and fear it’. An extract from TSE’s ‘Ode’ is quoted in evidence.
TO Richard Aldington
MS Texas
6 November 1921
Albemarle Hotel, Cliftonville
My dear Richard,
I am awaiting the reply to a wire I have sent to Lausanne, and if it is favourable I shall leave next week. I shall be going to the Continent within the fortnight anyway, and my wife will come also, though not to Switzerland.