Letters of T.S. Eliot: 1898-1922

by T. S. Eliot

  TO Sydney Schiff

  CC Valerie Eliot

  2 August 1922

  9 Clarence Gate Gdns

  My dear Sydney,

  Thank you for your letter1 and enclosures. Your view of the matter is very similar to mine, which I have already expressed, and unfortunately is not that of those who are accustomed to small and precarious incomes and therefore cannot take my circumstances into account and realise why I should need more money or more security. About the precise sum needed they are as free to differ with me as I am to decline; but about the guarantee I see no room for doubt. The sum of £300 is based upon the assumption that I shall make £300 more out of periodical writing; so that even upon their own figures an absolute guarantee of the fund is necessary. I see no evidence that this guarantee is forthcoming.

  You will of course understand that I am in a difficult position; I cannot take any part in the affair beyond expressing my opinion to Pound and Aldington. At the same time, if the affair becomes public in such a way as to jeopardise my present position or make me ridiculous, I shall be forced publicly to discountenance it. As it is, no one could find it agreeable to have his private needs and way of life a subject of public scrutiny and criticism, however devoted it shows his friends to be.

  subscribe to your attitude in the enclosed letters. I appreciate warmly the trouble you have taken.

  Yours always affectionately,

  [T. S. E.]

  1–SS wrote on 1 Aug., ‘Admirable as the intention of your admirers is, so far as I know the facts, their method has not been practical … For me a guarantee is worthless unless it is based upon a forfeitable material value and a signature guarantees only that which the law, when invoked, can enforce.’

  TO Dorothy Pound

  MS Lilly

  Friday [4 August 1922]

  9 Clarence Gate Gdns

  My dear Dorothy

  It is very sweet of you to send the lavender – of which we are both very fond. Mine is now buried in shirts, Vivien’s I am taking down to her tomorrow. She has been better as to colitis, but still has bad neuritis in the right arm. She hopes to get strong enough to see you in Paris in October, if, as is probable, she does not come up to town again for some weeks. I hope Dartmoor is doing you good, but you looked too well to need it.

  Yours ever

  T.S.E.

  TO Alec Randall1

  TS Tulsa

  9 August 1922

  9 Clarence Gate Gdns

  Dear Mr Randall,

  Thank you very much for your letter. Your offer is most valuable, and I should like to see you as soon as I can and discuss Germanic matters with you. I will write to you next week and see if we can fix a date. I am unfortunately confined to the City, in fact to e.c.3, at lunchtime; perhaps you could come to see me some evening?

  The review aims at gathering the best foreign writers, but of course it is at present very small, and as the majority of the contributions must of course be English, not more than one of any one foreign nationality can appear in each number. For the first two, I have Hermann Hesse – whom I know – and Ernst Curtius. I want also to get at the best Scandinavians. Preferably men who are unknown here but ought to be known: rather than men like Hamsun2 and Couperus3 who are already known here.

  Do you know Alfred Kerr?4 I find his style difficult and his vocabulary impossible, but Germans have spoken to me of him very highly.

  Sincerely yours,

  T. S. Eliot

  I enclose a circular for your guidance –

  1–Alec (later Sir Alec) Randall (1892–1977), diplomat, entered the Foreign Office in 1920. In the early 1920s he was Second Secretary to the Holy See. He ended his career as Ambassador to Denmark, 1947–52. He became a regular reviewer of German literature for both C. and the TLS.

  2–Knut Hamsun (1859–1952), Norwegian writer. Nobel Prize for Literature, 1920.

  3–Louis Couperus (1863–1923), Dutch writer whose novel The Hidden Force (1900) was published in English in 1922.

  4–Alfred Kerr, né Kempner (1867–1948), theatre critic who championed naturalistic drama.

  TO Richard Cobden-Sanderson

  TS Beinecke

  9 August 1922

  9 Clarence Gate Gdns

  Dear Cobden-Sanderson,

  I enclose cheque for 12s from Mr F. S. Flint for a year’s subscription. Will you kindly send him a receipt.

  The letter paper and envelopes seem to me excellent. I notice that the red lettering is a little blurred, but I presume that the type will be quite clear in the finished work. Will you have the paper printed as soon as possible? For myself I should like a slightly larger envelope of the same shape and I should prefer it to be quite plain with no printing on it.

  I think that I can send you nearly all of the material by the beginning of the week. I will indicate the order in which the contributions are to be printed. As I said it is all going in sooner or later and until it is set up I am quite in the dark as to whether we have too much or too little for our pages.

  I have seen one or two people who have already received the circular and they appear to be quite pleased with its appearance.

  I think that as soon as you get back it would be well if we could meet and discuss the questions you raise of mutual responsibility and we can then make notes about any points which we desire to make explicit.

  Yours ever,

  T. S. Eliot

  TO Dorothy Pound

  MS Lilly

  Wednesday [9 August 1922]

  9 Clarence Gate Gdns

  My dear D. P.

  I arrived back from my weekend at Bosham, last night, went to the doctor about my cold, tonight had to have a shorthand typist in for correspondence (she comes twice a week) so is there any hope of my finding you tomorrow, of your not leaving town till Friday? If so, will you send me a line to Eliot, Information Branchage, Stock, London and I will come in. I hope so. If not, when?1

  Booklets – about what? I have asked Orage, but he says he writes no more, and I am told is taken up by the Gotcheff system.2 I shd like to get him. Novels – difficult in a quarterly – unless short – and one does not wish to commit oneself until one knows how good it is. Has anyone seen it?

  Shall be disappointed if impossible to see you before you go to Paris.

  Yours ever

  T.

  1–Dorothy Pound could not make any of the days TSE suggested, so he wrote again on 12 Aug.: ‘I am indeed very disappointed, but do let me know as soon as you return. TSE.’ (Lilly).

  2–After fifteen years as editor of the New Age, A. R. Orage had stepped down to follow George Gurdjieff in the summer of 1922. See Carswell, Lives and Letters.

  TO Sydney Schiff

  CC

  9 August 1922

  9 Clarence Gate Gdns

  My dear Sydney,

  I have several letters from you which I am anxious to answer, but I have been away over the weekend and I was also suffering from a heavy cold with neuralgia, and therefore have arrears to make up.

  I will write you on Sunday. In the meanwhile I have forwarded your letter to Conrad Aiken and fully concur with your opinion of his review.

  I will take up the point about Austin Harrison1 when I write you. These things are very vexing.

  Yours always affectionately,

  [T. S. E.]

  1–Austin Harrison, editor of the English Review. SS wrote on 3 Aug.: ‘Austin Harrison has printed my translation of Hesse’s first essay “The downfall of Europe” without acknowledging or mentioning me as translator … I had no little difficulty in getting Harrison to take it. He now places it first in the August number as though he had discovered Hesse or as though Hesse had selected the English Review in which to make his bow to the English public …’

  TO Antonio Marichalar

  TS Real Academia de la Historia

  9 August 1922

  9 Clarence Gate Gdns

  Cher Monsieur,

&
nbsp; Je m’empresse de vous accuser réception de votre très intéressante étude;1 recevez mes vifs remerciements. Puisque c’est un genre d’article dans lequel j’ai moi-même fait des tentatifs, j’apprécie fort bien que l’auteur se sacrifie à ses collègues; et j’espère recevoir de vous plus tard quelque chose où vous vous ‘raconterez’ (dans le sens de Gourmont) plutôt que vos contemporains; et je n’ai aucun doute que le public anglais desirera vous connaître davantage.

  Votre article paraîtra dans le second numéro; on vous enverra la petite bonification au mois de novembre. Je vous ferai parvenir un exemplaire de The Criterion dès le début; et j’espère que vous continuerez de m’envoyer Indice, que je trouve (en dépit de ma connaissance exiguë de la langue espagnole) d’un très grand intérêt. Votre article me poussera à recommencer mes études espagnoles.

  Le premier numéro contiendra des contributions de Larbaud, G. Saintsbury, Sturge Moore, Gómez de la Serna, Hermann Hesse, moi-même, et un inédit de Dostoevski.2 Dans le second, Ernst Curtius et Marcel Proust ou Paul Valéry.

  Merci de vos compliments gentils, et croyez-moi votre dévoué

  T. S. Eliot3

  1–Antonio Marichalar, ‘Contemporary Spanish Literature’, C. 1: 1 (Oct. 1922).

  2–The list of authors largely matches those in the first C. On 16 Sept., TSE would send Marichalar a revised list of the contributions to the first two numbers, while thanking him for his kind letter and ‘bénédiction’.

  3–Translation: Dear Sir, I hasten to acknowledge receipt of your very interesting article; receive my hearty thanks. Since it is the sort of piece that I have sometimes tried to write myself, I appreciate very well how the author has to sacrifice himself in the interest of his colleagues; and I hope later to get something from you in which you ‘talk about yourself’ (in the sense Gourmont uses the expression), rather than about your contemporaries; and I have no doubt that the English public will be keen to know you better.

  Your article will appear in the second number; the small fee will be despatched in November. I will send you a copy of The Criterion as soon as it appears; and I hope that you will continue to send me Indice, which, despite my meagre knowledge of the Spanish language, I find very interesting. Your article will push me to take up the study of Spanish again.

  The first number will contain contributions by Larbaud, G. Saintsbury, Sturge Moore, Gómez de la Serna, Herman Hesse, myself, and an unpublished Dostoevsky text. In the second, Ernst Curtius and Marcel Proust or Paul Valéry.

  James Sibley Watson TO Scofield Thayer

  MS Beinecke

  12 August [1922]

  Hotel Continental, Paris

  Cher S. T.

  Eliot seems in a conciliatory mood. The poem is not so bad. Shall I try to persuade him to sell us the poem at our regular rate with the award in view? We should have to ask him in advance whether he would accept it unless we wanted to run the risk of being turned down – as the king by John Galsworthy.1 It seems to me the award is a more important matter than the poem anyway, and I should favor giving Eliot the prize even without the poem, magnanimity not of course for me entering into the transaction. The Dial would then demonstrate its likeness to the Russian steam-roller – shining that is upon the just and unjust – at once impartial and relentless. And you could write comment on Eliot – and Gilbert [Seldes]’s publicity would make him squirm like any conger eel. In fact a whole muster of peacocks could be done in at one shot. (Do I quote?)

  Failing which I must say I favor Pound as second choice – ill as we get along.

  Somehow the idea of E. E. C. [E. E. Cummings] as recipient grows less and less supportable. First it would probably make Cummings sore. Second it would probably be the most unpopular choice we could hit upon. You may be right about The Enormous Room’s popularity, however. I shall be better able to tell about that when I get back to Gilbert.

  It is said that Eliot has sold Liveright the first publication rights, but I am certain Gilbert could get round Liveright if necessary.

  S. W.

  Telegraph me care ‘Francheul Paris’ if you want me to try persuading Eliot. I sail Aug 19th.2

  1–The novelist John Galsworthy had declined a knighthood.

  2–Four days later, Watson wrote again: ‘In response to Pound’s letter Eliot has assumed a more conciliatory attitude and has sent on a copy of Waste Land for our perusal. I am forwarding it to you. I am sorry that Pound’s vagueness in writing caused Eliot to send the copy to Paris instead of to you direct, but I suppose it will do for a starter. Anyway I wrote him more plainly about the prize and await his answer. I found the poem disappointing on first reading but after a third shot I think it up to his usual – all the styles are there, somewhat toned down in language <(adjectives!)> and theatricalized in sentiment – at least I thought so … If Eliot accepts the prize and sells us the poem politely at our regular rate – and you aren’t satisfied I suppose I shall bloody well have to come out with 2000 to bel esprit.’

  TO E. R. Curtius

  TS Bonn

  14 August 1922

  9 Clarence Gate Gdns, N.W.1

  My dear Herrn Curtius,

  Thank you for your letter of the 10th instant. I should be very glad to have the essay on ‘Balzac and the magical tradition’, and look forward to receiving it by the 1st November with great pleasure.1 And for a later number I should certainly be very glad to have the essay on Hölderlin and/ or George.2

  Allow us to hope that we may some day see a work from you on English literature comparable to your book on contemporary France.3 Such work seems to me of very great value. You shall receive the Criterion regularly. I should very much like to know whether you think that [there] would be an English-reading public in Germany, no matter how small, which would care to buy the Criterion provided that we could sell it in Germany at a possible price. It would of course have to be a price from which we could expect no profit, and I shall have to discuss with the publisher at what price we could afford to supply it to Germany; but the project seems to me a worthy one, and I should be very grateful if you would let me know what you think of it. The difficulties of international communication are very great: in fact, even German books are sold here in England at prices beyond my means, and are only obtained after a long delay.

  Please give my kind regards to M. Gide, and believe me,

  yours very cordially,

  T. S. Eliot

  I shall then expect your essay by November1.

  1–See E. R. Curtius, ‘Balzac’, C. 1: 1 (Jan. 1923).

  2–The German poets Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–1843) and Stefan George (1868–1933).

  3–Curtius, Die literarischen Wegbereiter des neuen Frankreich.

  TO Gilbert Seldes1

  TS Beinecke

  14 August 1922

  9 Clarence Gate Gdns

  Dear Mr Seldes,

  On looking over my letter to you on the 9th inst.,2 I think that I may have expressed myself obscurely or ambiguously and I wish to make the issue quite clear.

  Personally, as I have told you, I feel that my London Letters have been of very poor quality. I should myself prefer to write articles for you such as the one you suggest, but I do not think that it is within my powers, considering how little time I have, to do both such articles and a regular London Letter. If however the Dial considers that it would lose more by my ceasing to write London Letters than by my not writing anything else, I am quite prepared to go on with London Letters in the same way.

  The point is that I cannot undertake to do both. Putting aside my personal preference I should like the Dial to consider simply its own interest and let me know what it wants me to do.

  Thanking you again for your kind letter,

  I am,

  Yours faithfully,

  T. S. Eliot

  1–Passing this letter to Thayer, Seldes wrote on it, ‘Note form and substance.’

  2–TSE’
s letter of 9 Aug. has not been found, but see his letter of 28 July to the Dial.

  TO Edmund Wilson1

  TS Beinecke

  14 August 1922

  Clarence Gate Gdns

  My dear Sir,

  Thank you for your letter of the 1st inst. I should be very glad to do for you such an article as you suggest.2 For the next two months I shall be far too busy to attempt such a thing, but I think that I should be able to provide one during October or November if that is satisfactory to you. As for a poem, I am afraid that it is quite impossible at present as I only have one for which I have already contracted.

  Will you kindly let me know whether you would be glad to have an article in November?

  I will look into the question of a photograph. Mr Wyndham Lewis has recently done a drawing of me of which I wish to have a photograph made, and this might suit you as well as a direct photograph. But an excellent photograph was taken years ago by Mr E. O. Hoppé and I will see if he can have a print made and sent to his agent in New York for you.