by T. S. Eliot
TO Henry Eliot
MS Houghton
25 August 1918
c/o British Linen Bank,
Threadneedle St, London e.c.
Dear Henry,
Thank you infinitely for your letter of the 5th August, which arrived yesterday. You have evidently taken no end of pains over this, and I do appreciate your goodness.
It would appear, after examining your report very carefully, that I have as good a chance over here. Since the end of July I have tried several things. There seemed a very good chance for a job, with commission, in the U.S.A. Navy Office here in London. I interviewed several people in the office, and they said they would be very glad of a man like me in the Intelligence Department, and there was another job too, even better, directly under the Admiral. I thought I was pretty certain to get one or the other, and then they got a cable from Washington forbidding them to give any more commissions over here. There was still some prospect of their cabling for special permission in my case, but it is now two weeks and I have heard nothing. I am going once more to enquire, but am not hopeful.
The second thing is that I had an introduction to Col. Schick, Assistant Provost-Marshal, who has been awfully nice to me. I have had a medical examination, passed fit for limited service (hernia) and am to send in an application for a commission in the Quartermaster’s or Interpreter’s Corps. I have been collecting testimonials from the most important people I know; the whole exhibit goes to France, and if approved, I am examined by a board here. Col. Schick thinks I ought to get this. If this fails, I see nothing else at present but to try for exemption. Not being fit for active service, I am much more useful in my present occupation than in any limited service job for which I could be conscripted as a private, and with an invalid dependent wife it is obvious that I should suffer very badly on a private’s pay.
I do not suppose that I shall be called up for some time anyway, being in a deferred class, so there will be time to go on trying, but the strain is great. If you hear of any job which I could get over here without going back it would be very useful. There ought to be places for which a man who knows England well, English society, English business, would be most suitable.
I am awfully sorry not to have acknowledged the previous remittances of money. It seems awfully ungrateful, but there have been times when I have been so over worked and tired and worried that the idea of writing has been impossible of execution. And at times when one has a great deal more to do than one can do one takes a kind of vicious pleasure in neglecting things and appearing ungrateful and rude and nasty to the people to whom one least wishes to be.
Thank you again and again. I simply cannot write any more, I have written nine letters today and I have two more to write. Vivien will write as soon as she can.
Very affectionately
Tom.
TO St John Hutchinson
MS Texas
25 August 1918
31 West St, Marlow
Dear Jack
Thanks awfully for your letter, which is a very useful one, and a departure from the usual form of testimonial. I hope it was not a nuisance to you to write at such short notice, but I thought it might be essential to get it off at once. I rang up Schick in the morning, and he said that the difference of a few days would not matter, but that I ought to get as good recommendations to send with it as I possibly could. So I am hoping to see Bennett1 on Monday, and if he is well inclined to get a letter out of him on the spot; and turn in my application on Tuesday.
Schick said this time that what was most important, when the Board was actually appointed here in London, was to find out anyone I knew who knew any member of the Board and get them to write personally. Lady Cunard would in all probability know one of them, or even if she did not, she could write to someone who did, and the letter could be placed before the member, and this would be more influential than a formal testimonial addressed to no one in particular. If she were in town I think it would be much the simplest thing for someone to take me to see her; but as she is out of town would it not be best if I could meet Nancy and explain to her? Do tell me how you think that could be managed.
You see, Lady C. has been approached about my affairs already, and I don’t want her to get muddled or tired of them, but want to ask some one perfectly definite thing.
This is the only point at present. Of course, all the testimonials or letters I can get to put before the Board will be very useful – what I have said is only about Lady C.
I hope you are not having as wet a weekend at Wittering as we are here. I envy you there. With many thanks
Yours ever
T. S. E.
1–Arnold Bennett.
TO Mary Hutchinson
MS Texas
25 August 1918
31 West St, Marlow
Dear Mary,
Thank you so much for your letter. I do appreciate such sympathy in the present difficulties, though I hate a situation which makes me force my practical personal affairs upon my friends to the exclusion of everything else. I quite feel as you do about khaki; at the same time I think that this is the moment for getting into it to the best advantage, and that nothing else is of much use until this has been tried. Everything else is insecure, though I shall try if and immediately this present attempt fails. I am almost at the point of feeling that nearly anything, settled would be less unpleasant than the present incessant strain.
I think that conditions might arise when Clutton Brock’s name would be very useful.1 At present what I want are names which could carry instant conviction to anybody – celebrities, and people with official or social titles. Of course Brock knows a great many people, and he might be able to suggest something. But if it is a question of a formal testimonial I think it might be more useful later. I have met him once or twice. He is a good person to keep in mind; thank you for thinking of him.
As for your proposal that we should come to Wittering – that is very good of you. But the fact is that when everything is so unsettled we could not think of going away from town. I might have to come back at any time, and I should feel very restless. Your barn is a charming place! but I simply could not write anywhere at present – it’s out of the question. You understand that, I am sure. We should have loved to come had circumstances been different. Thank you very much from both of us.
Yours ever,
T. S.E.
1–Arthur Clutton-Brock (1868–1924), essayist, critic and journalist, author of The Ultimate Belief, which TSE had reviewed in IJE, Oct. 1916.
TO John Rodker1
MS Mrs Burnham Finney
4 September 1918
31 West St, Marlow
Dear Rodker,
I return herewith all of your MSS which is in my possession. There is another prose piece which I gave to Weaver and told her she ought to use, and which I expect she will print shortly, and I will ask her if she has anything else. The Suite was too long to use under our present limitations, and two other things we judged it useless to try, in view of our mortifying experiences with Ulysses. Have you anything on hand that we could have, prose or verse?2 Also, would you be willing to review a book or two occasionally?
It is true that my affairs have been unsettled, and living in the country as we are, and being absorbed in military matters, I haven’t seen anyone except very much on business. But I am coming back to town toward the end of this month, and as any decision of my fate seems to be in the indefinite future, I expect to occupy my flat myself. Otherwise, I should have been glad of a tenant – though the present one would be glad to keep it on.
I hope I may see something of you this winter.
Cordially
T. S. Eliot
1–John Rodker, publisher, poet and novelist: see Glossary of Names.
2–Rodker contributed ‘Hymn to Death, 1914 and On’, Egoist 5: 10 (Nov.–Dec. 1918).
TO Robert Ross1
4 September 1918
31 West St, Marlow
Dear Mr
Ross,
I have just managed to get your address, which I neglected to notice the other day, from Osbert – or I should certainly have written to you before, to thank you for speaking to Bennett. I found him extremely kind and sympathetic, and he wrote a charming letter for me without any hesitation.2 Your having spoken to him made it much easier for me.
I have not, however, put in my application yet. I have found that the Intelligence Dept. is much more suitable and have just got in touch with them. I was able to produce an excellent showing of testimonials, and the chances are very good, only they want three letters from Americans as well – and I don’t know any prominent Americans here. Thanking you again,
Yours very truly
T. S. Eliot
1–Robert Ross (1869–1918), gallery owner and literary executor of Oscar Wilde. Osbert Sitwell had suggested that TSE approach Bennett through Ross. The text here is taken from Robert Ross: Friend of Friends, ed. Margery Ross (1952), 337.
2–See Bennett’s testimonial, 28 Aug. 1918: ‘I have pleasure in stating that Mr. T. S. Eliot (whom I understand to be a candidate for a commission in the Quartermasters or Interpreters Corps) has an intimate knowledge of the French language. Also that he is a writer of distinguished merit, for whose work personally I have a great admiration. I may mention that it was my admiration for Mr. Eliot’s work which led to my acquaintance with him, and not vice versa’ (Letters of Arnold Bennett III, ed. James Hepburn, 1970, 66).
TO His Father
MS Houghton
8 September 1918
c/o Lloyds Bank, 17 Cornhill, E.C.3
Dear Father,
Your letter with birth certificate came Friday. Thank you very much for your promptness in writing and in writing to Pres. Eliot1 and to Ada.
I am in touch with a Major Turner of the Intelligence Service (he comes from St Louis but has not lived in America for many years). He thinks he can get me into that work. My testimonials are very good – but he says that to apply for a commission – to satisfy the officials who pass upon these things – I must have three American testimonials. This is all that is holding me up – I ought to have them now, and every day delay is affecting my chances. This is just the work for a man of my qualifications and I am the sort of man wanted for it, and my physical disabilities (hernia and tachycardia) would not disqualify me.
I am all the more worried because I have a letter from Ada, dated the 25th, in which she does not refer to having heard from you or from me. I cabled her on the same day I cabled you, and asked for testimonials from any Harvard people besides Charles Eliot. What can be the matter? I cabled again to her on Thursday last, and have had no reply to that.
I have everything required except the American testimonials – my friends here have pushed me in every way possible, and I should hate to be disappointed just for the lack of these. If I do not hear from Ada I shall cable you again.
Thank you very much. I am worn out with trying to do my duty at the bank – which has been so kind to me – and rushing hither and thither as well.
I will write by Wednesday if I have any more news.
Your affectionate son
Tom.
1–President Charles William Eliot of Harvard; see letter of 25 July 1919.
TO John Quinn
MS NYPL (MS)
8 September 1918
c/o Lloyds Bank, 17 Cornhill, e.c.3
Dear Mr Quinn,
Pound told me yesterday that he was cabling to you about me, so I am writing now to explain the circumstances. It seemed to me a pretty considerable favour to ask of you, but he was quite sure that it was the thing to do, and I know that your word would carry as much weight as anyone’s.
I am trying to get a commission in the Intelligence Department of the Army. Although of draft age (thirty) I am graded as unfit for active service (fighting) on account of a hernia, and furthermore my wife (who is an invalid) is entirely dependent on me, which I believe makes a difference. But I should like to get into the service in some way in which my brains and qualifications, such as they are, would be useful, if I could have a rank high enough to support me financially. The Intelligence Department needs men who know Europe and England well, and I think there is a chance for me to be very useful there. From what enquiries I have made the work seems comparatively undeveloped yet and there are great possibilities of work for Anglo-American understanding. Major Turner, whom I saw three days ago in the matter, was very much pleased with my English testimonials, but said that it was an invariable rule for an applicant to have at least three American ones as well.1
I have been very busy with these and other personal anxieties for several months past – in fact I have had such a busy year in the effort to make a living under wartime conditions, that I think I shall have more leisure for serious work and freedom from anxiety in the Army than out of it. I have not answered your delightful letter of April 19th as I ought to have done. I deeply appreciated your kindness over the Boni affair. I am all the more grateful as it arose at a time when you were just recovering from a serious operation.
I have a book ready for Knopf, not a very big one, but I think big enough – miscellany of prose (mostly criticism) and verse including Prufrock and everything of any merit since Prufrock, the manuscript of which is almost ready to go over. It is not the book I should have liked. I should prefer to keep the prose and verse apart; and the former, I fear, bears marks of haste in the writing in many places. But it is time I had a volume in America, and this is the only way to do it; and Pound’s book2 will provide a precedent.
I hope you will not find the book a wholly journalistic compilation. I hope the Little Review is really gaining subscriptions in America. It must be a great burden to you in certain ways, and it does not seem to me that it could be permanently run on its present constitution, though this is doubtless the only way possible at present.
I hope you are much stronger now, though I gather that you are still under a regimen. No doubt you find it very hard to preserve yourself from claims. I can understand what you say about that – so well that I hate troubling you with my personal affairs – here I have written a long letter about nothing else. Forgive me.
Yours very sincerely
T. S. Eliot
1–Quinn wrote to Turner on TSE’s behalf.
2–EP, Pavannes and Divisions (Knopf, June 1918).
FROM Leonard Woolf1
TS Valerie Eliot
19 October 1918
Hogarth House, Paradise Road,
Richmond, S.W.
Dear Mr Eliot,
My wife and I have started a small private Printing Press, and we print and publish privately short works which would not otherwise find a publisher easily. We have been told by Roger Fry that you have some poems which you wish to find a publisher for. We both very much liked your book, Prufrock; and I wonder whether you would care to let us look at the poems with a view to printing them.
Yours very truly
Leonard Woolf
I should add that we are amateurs at printing but we could, if you liked, let you see our last production.2
1–Leonard Woolf (1880–1969): writer and publisher; see Glossary of Names.
2–Katherine Mansfield, Prelude (Hogarth Press, 1918).
Vivien Eliot TO Henry Eliot
MS Houghton
[Postmark 27 October 1918]
Dear Henry,
I have tried to write to you over and over. I feel awful at not having written to any of you for so long. It is largely that I am always now in such wretched health, and I am simply ashamed of it. I don’t want them to know. And then there is a lot we can’t tell, and life is so feverish and yet so dreary at the same time, and one is always waiting, waiting for something. Generally waiting for some particular strain to be over. One thinks, when this is over I will write. And then there is something else. For months now, I have waited for T. to be settled. I believe that has nearly come, and you will get a cable before this. I am also waiting
to be well. I wish something would bring you over here. I do wish it.
Yr.
V.
TO Henry Eliot
MS Houghton
27 October 1918
Write 18 Crawford Mansions,
London W.1 permanently
My dear Henry
Thank you very much for your kind letter of Oct. 3d. I am just writing this to say that I have cashed all the remittances viz.
$50 13th May = £10.8.4
50 17th June 10.8.4
52.80 31st July 11. –
The last was drawn on Lloyds Marlow, but I cashed it at Cornhill. I am cabling to this effect tomorrow. Will write by next mail.
Affy yours
Tom.
TO His Father
TS Houghton
4 November 1918
18 Crawford Mansions
My dearest father,
You will have wondered very much and I fear worried. I have thought most constantly of you and mother and wanted to write every day, but at the same time I have been so paralysed by rapid occurrences and the suspense that I could not write. Also, I kept hoping from day to day that I should have some final definite piece of news to cable you. Now it has not ended yet, so I am writing.