[No surviving envelope]
I am still half-stupified and half-asleep since Sunday, partly extreme fatigue and partly the sudden heat. On the Thursday before I saw you at Canterbury I had started the day at the dentists, hadThomson, George Malcolm;a2 lunched with George Malcolm Thomson1 to talk about Scottish Nationalism and try to tell him how his pamphlet on the decline of industry in Scotland ought to have been written and he said he would re-write it;2 wentFlaccus, William Kimball;a1 toJohnston, Denis;a1 tea with a young American poet3 whoGate Theatre, Dublin;a1 on a protracted honeymoon had stopped in Dublin and fallen in with the Gate Theatre – hePakenham, Edward, 6th Earl of Longford;a1 had Lord and Lady Longford (who wrote a play about Swift)4 and Denis Johnston5 there, the former fat but not very interesting, the latter looking interesting but wholly silent; thenOldham, Joseph;b3 dined with Oldham atLondon School of EconomicsTSE chairs trilingual meeting at;a1 theBerdyaev, Nikolai;a1 London School of Economics and found I had to take the chair for a meeting for Berdaiev, the Russian philosopher, afterwards6 – and had to take it in French – and two men present spoke in German – and some in English which was rapidly translated into Russian by an American posted at Berdayev’s [sic] ear. Berdaiev did not seem to me very profound, butBerlin, Isaiahon Russian philosophical vocabulary;a1 I am told (to-dayAll Souls College, Oxfordand Isaiah Berlin's election to;a1 by Isaiah Berlin, the only Jew ever elected to All Souls’)7 that the Russian language contains no adequate philosophical vocabulary, so Russians can’t think as we mean thinking. TheMurder in the Cathedral1935 Canterbury Festival production;d7final performance;a4 final performance went off well, andLang, William Cosmo Gordon, Archbishop of Canterbury (later Baron Lang of Lambeth)non-committal benediction on Murder;a1 we had to step up and receive not a blessing but a few kind words from the Archbishop, whoRaleigh, Lady Lucie Gertrude Jackson;a2 attended in a purple cassock sitting in a sort of throne-chair in the row behind Lady Raleigh and me. His words were well-chosen, that is to say they sounded very flattering at the time, but didn’t actually commit him to any opinion whatever. TheFogerty, Elsiein the Archbishop of Canterbury's presence;a8 Elsiefog nearly curtsied with excitement. ThenBabington, Margaret A.officiates at Canterbury Cathedral Festival;a2 Babington mounted on a chair and presented the leading persons with books of photographs of the play, but they are fake photographs, that is to say posed for the photographer and do not correspond to any actual grouping in the play. ItMorleys, thelife at Pike's Farm among;a9 was pleasant being motered [sic] over to Crowhurst in the cool of the evening by the Morleys; though I think I would rather have spent two days in bed and a week in a deck chair, I feel so tired. They are endlessly kind and good, andMorley, Donaldmasters his urge to pester TSE;a9 by the way Donald’s manners have much improved though he still wants as much of one’s time: whileDavid, Richard;a1 working on myCorpus Christi College, Cambridge;a8 report on the dissertation for the lad who wants a Fellowship at Corpus8 I was occasionally aware of Donald peeping in the window to see if I had finished. I am useful to Donald because he is not allowed to go out on the pond in the punt without an adult, but he is much more amenable about coming in again than he used to be, and thanks one afterwards. On Sunday an American family with three children came to dinner and tea; onTippett, Michaelvisits the Morleys;a1 Monday Oliver’sMorley, Oliverhis musical prodigy;a4 young music teacher9 (Oliver now plays Mozart sonatas quite nicely) came to tea with two friends of his and played cricket with Donald while I slept, youngappearance (TSE's)proud of his legs;b4 men in shorts and I wish you would allow me to wear shorts sometimes because looking at them I thought my legs are much lovelier than most. I came back Tuesday evening nearly prostrated by the heat, andSt. Stephen's Church, Gloucester Roadvestry goings-on;a2 this morning after a little vestry business (andCheetham, Revd Erictaken ill;b3 the vicar has complications and is to see a specialist on Friday, he ought to go away for some weeks) rushedFabers, thetake TSE to lunch in Oxford;c4 out to Hampstead to the Fabers. Motored to Oxford – weather comfortable and Geoffrey drives very fast, and were in good time for lunch. IStarkie, Enid;a1 had a Miss Starkie,10 a dumpy little Irishwoman who looked absurd in a master’s gown and cap, but was really the best person for me in that company as we had common friends in Paris and Dublin and she has written a huge superfluous work on Baudelaire, butCoghill, NevillTSE kept from talking to;a1 I couldn’t talk to Nevil [sic] Coghill11 on my other hand as much as I should have liked, he is a Fellow of Exeter andCoghill, Nevillhis Worcester College gardens Tempest;a2 always producing plays at Oxford, the Tempest in Worcester Gardens12 and what not, because the man on Miss Starkie’s right wouldn’t talk to her much. AfterMerriman, Dorothea (née Foote);a3 lunchMerriman, Roger Bigelowreunited with TSE in Oxford;a8 I fell in with Dorothea (is it Dorothea I mean Mrs.) Merriman and had a chat with her and Roger13 but Enid Faber was sent to draw me away and introduce me to someone else as somebody important wanted to talk to Merriman. This was out in the quad after lunch where we were supposed to have coffee but some had coffee and some had not and I had not because no one brought me any, and others fared likewise. The usual affair when a number of people are standing in an open space: either you are torn away in the middle of a conversation or else the other person is torn away leaving you stranded and trying to look dignified though lonely. GeoffreyHeadlam, Arthur, Bishop of Gloucesteramusing encounter with;a1 found the Bishop of Gloucester14 wandering about in purple and scarlet (he is getting very old and a bit feeble) and full of good intentions said would he like to meet Mr. T. S. Eliot. ‘O yes’ said the Bishop heartily, ‘certainly, by all means, glad to meet anybody’. Geoffrey a little dashed but persistent – o no, I don’t mean that, but Mr. Eliot, you know, the distinguished poet, just written a play about Thomas à Becket produced at the Canterbury Festival last week. ‘Canterbury? Festival?’ said the Bishop, ‘never heard of it. But delighted to meet him, whoever he is’. Geoffrey by this time anxious to retire and forget the whole matter, but the Bishop went on – o yes – by all means – meet him: so the introduction had to be effected. Needless to say that very little came of it. See enclosed diagram.15
CanterburyCanterbury Cathedral Festival, 1935TSE reflects on;a6 was all so public, and one felt there merely an instrument in the hands of other people: so naturally an unsatisfactory meeting for me, though better than none. Strolling about the precincts as if a telescope trained on us from every window, to say nothing of prowling chorus girls and preying autograph-albumists. I prize the evening when you had a headache above a thousand such, andEnglandLondon;h1affords solitude and anonymity;a3 really like best meeting you in London, where one is unobserved and insignificant. There is privacy, a lovely privacy, in a mob, as when we coasted down Ludgate Hill on the back of a taxi, and I felt that no one was taking the slightest notice of us but ourselves. Nottravels, trips and plansEH's 1934–5 year in Europe;b4TSE's July 1935 Campden week;e1 that I am not eager to come for a week! I shall write to Mrs. Perkins tomorrow. But a hard day – a dentist again, ColBowdon, Lt.-Col. W. Butler;a1. Butler Bowden16 at 11.30 andMoncrieff, George Scott;a2 lunch for George Scott Moncrieff, a committee all afternoon andSmith, Theodora ('Dodo') Eliot (TSE's niece)1935 visit to England;b3taken to the ballet;a1 Dodo to the ballet in the evening. ThenSociety of the Sacred Mission, Kelham Hall, NottinghamshireTSE's June–July 1935 stay;a9 Kelham and its earnest students and margarine and terce sext none and compline. YouMorleys, the;e3 AREHale, Emilyand Morleys set for ballet;f9 to come to the ballet with the Morleys, if you will do this I am willing to be bullied in all sorts of ways. So now no more until Monday, but I pray for a letter from you tomorrow.
1.George Malcolm Thomson (1899–1996) worked for the Evening Standard and Daily Express, and served during WW2 as Principal Private Secretary to the 1st Lord Beaverbrook. Works include A Short History of Scotland (1930). OBE, 1990. See George McKechnie, The Best-Hated Man: Intellectuals and the Condition of Scotland between the Wars (2013).
2.Scotland: That Distressed Area (Edinburgh: Porpoise Press, 1935).
3.WilliamFlaccus, William Kimball Kimball Flaccus (1911–72), poet and teacher, published his first book of poems, Avalanche of April, in 1934. Frank Morley to Alexander Laing, 9 Jan. 1935: ‘I went into deep consultation with Mr Eliot on AVALANCHE OF APRIL. Mr Eliot has been interested in Kimball Flaccus for quite awhile, but the result of our confabulation was, alas, that which I foreshadowed in our conversation’ (E6/27).
4.EdwardPakenham, Edward, 6th Earl of Longford Pakenham, 6th Earl of Longford (1902–61), Anglo-Catholic Irish peer, politician (Irish Nationalist), dramatist and translator, succeeded to the earldom in 1915 and was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford. Chairman of the Gate Theatre, Dublin, 1930–6. Yahoo (1933), his play about Jonathan Swift – ‘the father of modern Irish nationalism,’ as Longford hailed him – was running at the Westminster Theatre, London.
5.Denis Johnston (1901–84), Irish playwright, critic, biographer and memoirist; BBC producer; author of The Moon in the Yellow River (play, 1931).
6.NikolaiBerdyaev, Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948), Russian religious and political philosopher; author of The End of Our Time (1933).
7.IsaiahBerlin, Isaiah Berlin (1909–97), author, philosopher, historian of ideas, was born in Riga, Latvia, but came to England with his family in 1920. Educated at St Paul’s School, London, and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he gained a first in Greats and a second first in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, he won a prize fellowship at All Souls. He taught philosophy at New College until 1950. In 1957 he was appointed Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at Oxford; and in the same year he was elected to the British Academy, which he served in the capacity of Vice-President, 1959–61, and President, 1974–8. He was appointed CBE in 1946; knighted in 1957. In 1971 he was appointed to the Order of Merit. Founding President of Wolfson College, Oxford, 1966–75. Works include Karl Marx (1939), The Hedgehog and the Fox (1953) and The Roots of Romanticism (1999).
8.TSEDavid, Richard reported on The Janus of Poets: Being an essay on the Dramatic Value of Shakspere’s Poetry both good and bad, by Richard David (Scholar of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge) – an extended version of the winning entry in the Harkness Essay Prize 1934 – which was to be published by Cambridge University Press, 1935.
9.MichaelTippett, Michael Tippett (1905–98), composer celebrated for works including the oratorio A Child of Our Time (written 1939–41; performed 1944) and the opera The Midsummer Marriage (1955). See also Oliver Soden, Michael Tippett: The Biography (2019).
10.EnidStarkie, Enid Starkie (1897–1970), Irish literary critic; Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford; ultimately Reader; author of Baudelaire (1933), Arthur Rimbaud in Abyssinia (1937), From Gautier to Eliot: The Influence of France on English Literature, 1851–1939 (1962), Flaubert: The Making of the Master (1967). CBE, 1967. See further Joanna Richardson, ‘The One and Only Enid’, Sunday Times, 19 Aug. 1973; Richardson, Enid Starkie: A Biography (1973).
11.NevillCoghill, Nevill Coghill (1899–1980), born in Co. Cork, studied at Exeter College, Oxford, and taught at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, before being elected in 1924 to a research fellowship at Exeter College and then a full Fellowship. From 1957 he was Merton Professor of English. A passionate member of the Oxford University Dramatic Society, he put on many plays (including Measure for Measure, starring Richard Burton, in 1944); and he was friends with C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, and with his pupil W. H. Auden. His primary interest was Chaucer: he translated The Canterbury Tales (1956) and Troilus and Criseyde (1971), and he wrote The Poet Chaucer (1949), Geoffrey Chaucer (1956) and Shakespeare’s Professional Skills (1964). He later edited the Faber Educational editions of Murder in the Cathedral, The Family Reunion and The Cocktail Party.
12.Coghill’sCoghill, Nevillhis Worcester College gardens Tempest;a2 1934 production of The Tempest in Worcester College Gardens memorably closed with the cast sailing a galleon across the lake, leaving behind only Ariel and Caliban.
13.Roger Merriman’s wife was Dorothea Foote (1880–1970), whose maternal grandfather was Samuel Atkins Eliot (1798–1862), member of the Massachusetts State House of Representatives, 1834–7; Mayor of Boston, 1937–9. Samuel Atkins Eliot’s son was Charles William Eliot (1834–1926), who was President of Harvard University, 1869–1909.
14.Arthur Headlam (1862–1947), Bishop of Gloucester, 1923–45.
15.Diagram not found.
16.Lt.-ColBowdon, Lt.-Col. W. Butler. W. Butler Bowdon, DSO, had recently discovered in his library the reminiscences of the medieval mystic Margery Kempe (dictated in 1436 and 1438, some of it from a copy of ca. 1432). The ‘Book of Margery Kempe of Lynn’ – she was the daughter of a prominent citizen of Lynn, and had been married for many years to John Kempe, ‘a worshipful burgess’, bearing him fourteen children, before taking a vow of chastity – combines lofty spiritual devotions with an account of her travels throughout Europe and to the Holy Land. This newly discovered text was to place her as one of the foremost mystics of the age, alongside contemporaries such as St Bridget of Sweden, St Catherine of Siena and St Joan of Arc. See Hope Emily Allen, ‘A Medieval Work: Margery Kempe of Lynn’ (letter), TLS, 27 Dec. 1934.
1.MargaretBabington, Margaret A. A. Babington was from 1928 Hon. Steward and Treasurer, Friends of Canterbury Cathedral; Hon. Festival Manager for the Festival of Music and Drama, 15–22 June 1935. See The Canterbury Adventure: An Account of the Inception and Growth of the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral 1928–1959 (1960): Canterbury Papers no. 10. She negotiated with F&F the terms of the production of the first (abbreviated) performance of Murder in the Cathedral in the Chapter House, June 1935, and the publication of the theatre edition.
6.NikolaiBerdyaev, Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948), Russian religious and political philosopher; author of The End of Our Time (1933).
7.IsaiahBerlin, Isaiah Berlin (1909–97), author, philosopher, historian of ideas, was born in Riga, Latvia, but came to England with his family in 1920. Educated at St Paul’s School, London, and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he gained a first in Greats and a second first in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, he won a prize fellowship at All Souls. He taught philosophy at New College until 1950. In 1957 he was appointed Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at Oxford; and in the same year he was elected to the British Academy, which he served in the capacity of Vice-President, 1959–61, and President, 1974–8. He was appointed CBE in 1946; knighted in 1957. In 1971 he was appointed to the Order of Merit. Founding President of Wolfson College, Oxford, 1966–75. Works include Karl Marx (1939), The Hedgehog and the Fox (1953) and The Roots of Romanticism (1999).
16.Lt.-ColBowdon, Lt.-Col. W. Butler. W. Butler Bowdon, DSO, had recently discovered in his library the reminiscences of the medieval mystic Margery Kempe (dictated in 1436 and 1438, some of it from a copy of ca. 1432). The ‘Book of Margery Kempe of Lynn’ – she was the daughter of a prominent citizen of Lynn, and had been married for many years to John Kempe, ‘a worshipful burgess’, bearing him fourteen children, before taking a vow of chastity – combines lofty spiritual devotions with an account of her travels throughout Europe and to the Holy Land. This newly discovered text was to place her as one of the foremost mystics of the age, alongside contemporaries such as St Bridget of Sweden, St Catherine of Siena and St Joan of Arc. See Hope Emily Allen, ‘A Medieval Work: Margery Kempe of Lynn’ (letter), TLS, 27 Dec. 1934.
4.RevdCheetham, Revd Eric Eric Cheetham (1892–1957): vicar of St Stephen’s Church, Gloucester Road, London, 1929–56 – ‘a fine ecclesiastical showman’, as E. W. F. Tomlin dubbed him. TSE’s landlord and friend at presbytery-houses in S. Kensington, 1934–9. See Letters 7, 34–8.
11.NevillCoghill, Nevill Coghill (1899–1980), born in Co. Cork, studied at Exeter College, Oxford, and taught at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, before being elected in 1924 to a research fellowship at Exeter College and then a full Fellowship. From 1957 he was Merton Professor of English. A passionate member of the Oxford University Dramatic Society, he put on many plays (including Measure for Measure, starring Richard Burton, in 1944); and he was friends with C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, and with his pupil W. H. Auden. His primary interest was Chaucer: he translated The Canterbury Tales (1956) and Troilus and Criseyde (1971), and he wrote The Poet Chaucer (1949), Geoffrey Chaucer (1956) and Shakespeare’s Professional Skills (1964). He later edited the Faber Educational editions of Murder in the Cathedral, The Family Reunion and The Cocktail Party.
8.TSEDavid, Richard reported on The Janus of Poets: Being an essay on the Dramatic Value of Shakspere’s Poetry both good and bad, by Richard David (Scholar of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge) – an extended version of the winning entry in the Harkness Essay Prize 1934 – which was to be published by Cambridge University Press, 1935.
3.WilliamFlaccus, William Kimball Kimball Flaccus (1911–72), poet and teacher, published his first book of poems, Avalanche of April, in 1934. Frank Morley to Alexander Laing, 9 Jan. 1935: ‘I went into deep consultation with Mr Eliot on AVALANCHE OF APRIL. Mr Eliot has been interested in Kimball Flaccus for quite awhile, but the result of our confabulation was, alas, that which I foreshadowed in our conversation’ (E6/27).
2.ElsieFogerty, Elsie Fogerty, CBE, LRAM (1865–1945), teacher of elocution and drama training; founder in 1906 of the Central School of Speech and Drama (Laurence Olivier and Peggy Ashcroft were favourite pupils). Fogerty was to train the chorus for the Canterbury premiere in 1935 of TSE’s Murder in the Cathedral.
3.RogerMerriman, Roger Bigelow Bigelow Merriman (1876–1945), the first Master of Eliot House, Harvard, which was opened in 1931. Born in Boston and educated at Harvard (PhD, 1902), he studied also at Balliol College, Oxford, and in Berlin. He was appointed Professor of History at Harvard in 1918. His writings include Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell (1902), Rise of the Spanish Empire (4 vols, 1918–34) and Suleiman the Magnificent (1944). He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a vice-president of the Massachusetts Historical Society; and he received honorary degrees from Oxford, Glasgow and Cambridge. Robert Speaight was to say of him, in The Property Basket: Recollections of a Divided Life (1970), 187: ‘A ripe character and erudite historian of the Spanish Empire, Merriman was Balliol to the backbone. At Oxford he was known as “Lumps” and at Harvard he was known as “Frisky”, and while his appearance suggested the first his ebullience did not contradict the second.’
12.GeorgeMoncrieff, George Scott Scott Moncrieff (1910–74) – ‘Scomo’ – journalist, author, playwright, novelist: see Biographical Register.
2.JohnMorley, Donald Donald Innes Morley (b. 15 Mar. 1926).
1.HughMorley, Oliver Oliver Morley (b. 4 Dec. 1928).
8.JosephOldham, Joseph (‘Joe’) Houldsworth Oldham (1874–1969), missionary, adviser, organiser: see Biographical Register.
4.EdwardPakenham, Edward, 6th Earl of Longford Pakenham, 6th Earl of Longford (1902–61), Anglo-Catholic Irish peer, politician (Irish Nationalist), dramatist and translator, succeeded to the earldom in 1915 and was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford. Chairman of the Gate Theatre, Dublin, 1930–6. Yahoo (1933), his play about Jonathan Swift – ‘the father of modern Irish nationalism,’ as Longford hailed him – was running at the Westminster Theatre, London.
2.11bRaleigh, Lady Lucie Gertrude Jackson TheRaleigh, Lady Lucie Gertrude Jacksonhosts TSE during Canterbury Murder;a1 Precincts, Canterbury, where TSE was accommodated during the production of Murder in the Cathedral, was the home of Lucy, Lady Raleigh (whose daughter had married her godfather, TSE’s friend Charles Whibley).
2.TheodoraSmith, Theodora ('Dodo') Eliot (TSE's niece) Eliot Smith (1904–92) – ‘Dodo’ – daughter of George Lawrence and Charlotte E. Smith: see Biographical Register. Theodora’sSmith, Charlotte ('Chardy') Stearns (TSE's niece) sister was Charlotte Stearns Smith (b. 1911), known as ‘Chardy’.
10.EnidStarkie, Enid Starkie (1897–1970), Irish literary critic; Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford; ultimately Reader; author of Baudelaire (1933), Arthur Rimbaud in Abyssinia (1937), From Gautier to Eliot: The Influence of France on English Literature, 1851–1939 (1962), Flaubert: The Making of the Master (1967). CBE, 1967. See further Joanna Richardson, ‘The One and Only Enid’, Sunday Times, 19 Aug. 1973; Richardson, Enid Starkie: A Biography (1973).
9.MichaelTippett, Michael Tippett (1905–98), composer celebrated for works including the oratorio A Child of Our Time (written 1939–41; performed 1944) and the opera The Midsummer Marriage (1955). See also Oliver Soden, Michael Tippett: The Biography (2019).