The Letters of T. S. Eliot, Volume 1: 1898-1922
Page 89
About us to dinner – we are both so run down that I am writing to one or two places near London with a view to our going away for two or three weeks, where I can get up to town. We should try to get away toward the end of the week, or sooner if possible, so we can make no engagements at the moment. We should have loved to come, but – and this Wigmore [Street flat] is a difficult place to live in, and we can’t get back till June, and are both very seedy, so I think it is a good idea. But I hope to see Massine with you. I enjoyed our Piccadilly tea so much.
Yrs ever aff
T.
Will ring you up early in the week.
1–Léonide Massine (1896–1979), Russian dancer and choreographer, joined Diaghilev and the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. TSE called him ‘the greatest mimetic dancer in the world’ (‘Commentary’, C. 3: 9, Oct. 1924, 5).
TO Leonard Woolf
MS Berg
6 May 1922
12 Wigmore St
Dear Leonard
I am so sorry and anxious to hear that Virginia is ill again.1 I pray that it is not serious, and hope to hear of her progress. Do give her my sincere sympathy: we know what constant illness is, and I think very few people do.2 I hope that I shall see you both soon.
Sincerely yours
T. S. Eliot
1–VW had told Roger Fry on 6 Apr. that she had ‘the most violent cold in the whole parish’ (Letters, II, 525).
2–He was to publish her essay ‘On Being Ill’, NC 4: 1 (Jan. 1926).
TO Charles du Bos1
MS Texas
7 May 1922
12 Wigmore St
Monsieur,
I am writing to express my thanks for your admirable translation of my chronicle.2 It is not simply that you have been faithful to the sense, but that you have improved the expression; so that the article is actually better written than it was in English. I have compared the text, and note several pleonasms and bad phrases which you have ingeniously removed. Your knowledge of English must be quite remarkable, and I shall hope and trust that anything I write will pass through your hands.
I hope also that we may meet on my next visit to Paris.
Je vous prie, Monsieur, d’accepter l’expression de mes sentiments empressés.3
T. S. Eliot
1–Charles du Bos (1882–1939), French man of letters.
2–‘Lettre d’Angleterre’, NRF 18 (May 1922), 617–24. Jacques Rivière also said the chronique was excellent (4 Mar. 1922). A revised English text appeared, as ‘A Preface to Modern Literature: Being a Conspectus Chiefly of English Poetry, Addressed to an Intelligent and Inquiring Foreigner’, in Vanity Fair 21: 3 (Nov. 1923), 44, 118.
3–‘I beg you, sir, to accept an assurance of my attentive regards.’
TO Richard Aldington
PC Texas
[Postmark 12 May 1922]
Castle Hotel, Tunbridge Wells
Thanks very much for your two letters, will answer on Sunday. Have retired here for a needed change of air, coming up every day – Very grateful thanks.
Aff.
T.
TO Ottoline Morrell
MS Texas
[17? May 1922]
Castle Hotel, Tunbridge Wells [Kent]
My dear Ottoline
You see we have finally come to Tunbridge Wells. We had to give up the idea of Brighton because it proved to be too far for me to come up every day. Lewis rang me up on Saturday and said that you wished to change our visit to the 16th June. That will suit us very well, and is a happy coincidence. I have just had an invitation from my father-in-law to spend a fortnight in Italy, and have just arranged to get away for a fortnight of my holiday at the end of the week so I should have been writing to you today in any case. So I shall be away from the 20th May till the 4th June, and shall look forward to seeing you the following weekend. Vivien is here with me; she cannot decide whether to take the opportunity to come as far as Paris with me and stay there while I am in Italy, or to go miserably to the seaside in further search of health. She is very seedy, and also in the middle of an attack of your kind of neuralgia. She sends you her love, and says that in any case she will be back in time for the weekend at Garsington.
I think this visit to Italy will just save me from another breakdown, which I felt was impending.
Yours affectionately
Tom.
TO Richard Aldington
MS Texas
17 May 1922
Castle Hotel, Tunbridge Wells
My dear Richard,
I am very much beholden to you for your last two letters, so far unanswered, which have given me pleasure. I think you must have written a clear and business-like letter to Richmond (and I divine a good scheme behind it)1 as he wrote a clear and business-like reply. Richmond has been unfailingly kind to me, and about my repeated delays in producing an article on Seneca has been angelic.2
I simply do not know what Ezra has in mind, except what his letters tell me. I have had another letter from him, not referring to Bel Esprit, but a very nice one, about the Review. But that will keep till I see you. Meanwhile I am off on Saturday to Lugano for a fortnight’s rest; I hope to cross over into Italy and see Ezra for a few days. I will write you from there. My brain has run down, so that at present I have to flog it for hours to produce the feeblest result, and my last effort, before going away, is to fulfill my engagement to the Dial for a July Letter. Tell me candidly what you think of my chronicles in the N.R.F. and the current Dial. I never know when this sort of job passes muster and when not.
The Lit. [TLS] page is a miserable affair, but are you getting any money out of it?
I have felt a little better for being here. Vivien will be writing to your wife in reply to her very kind letter. I add my thanks to hers in advance. I must say at once however, that even from here, with a perfect and quick train service, and at a hotel only one step from the station, I find that the journey minimises the benefit. I know of old, that if there is the slightest uncertainty or anxiety about catching trains, I get no benefit out of the country. From here I arrive at Cannon Street, from Aldermaston I should have a further journey from Paddington to the Bank, and I should have to get up in the morning about 6.30. Of course I should have loved being at Aldermaston, and of course Vivien would, but it would be very unwise for me to attempt it. Could I have had a holiday at that time, it would have been perfect for us. I am going to Italy at the invitation and expense of my father-in-law, and by good luck this next fortnight was possible – so it was all arranged very quickly. I needed the holiday now, and the offer of a fortnight in Italy without expense came at the right time.
We are very grateful to you both – You do not know how valuable your encouragement has always been to me, en outre [besides]. I hope to see you in June – you leave the day I return – but as soon as you are back.
Yrs ever aff.
Tom
1–RA wrote to Amy Lowell on 5May: ‘T. S. Eliot is very ill, will die if he doesn’t get proper and complete rest for a long time. A scheme is on foot to raise the money by asking a selected number of people to contribute £10 a year towards the nucleus of an income for him. About £80 has been promised already in England and more is hoped for; also I have a guarantee from the Literary Supplement that they will take at least £100 a year’s worth of articles from him.’ After EP had published ‘Credit and the Fine Arts … A Practical Application’, RA wrote again to Lowell on 7 July: ‘I had a long talk with Eliot, who pointed out that we were all being made ridiculous and that he could not possibly accept such hare-brained propositions as Ezra’s scheme involved. I quite agreed with him, but I still thought then that my private scheme might have worked out independent of Ezra’ (Richard Aldington: An Autobiography in Letters, ed. Norman T. Gates [1992], 67–9).
2–TSE’s article on Seneca never appeared.
TO Edgar Jepson
MS Beinecke
19 May 1922
12 Wigmore St, w.1
My dear Jepson,
I am very glad to have your book,1 and I very highly appreciate your sending it to me. I have read it and shall read it again, and I like it very much. It also seems to me well written and perfectly sincere – which seems to me a very great compliment indeed! I should like to discuss parts of it with you at leisure. I am off tomorrow for a fortnight’s
With grateful thanks,
Yours sincerely,
T. S. Eliot
I am also looking forward to showing you a poem I have written this winter, and getting your judgment.
1–Probably The Religion of the Life Force (written under the pseudonym R. Edison Page); reviewed in the TLS, 18 May 1922, 327: ‘perhaps the best thing about this little book is its optimism. Mr. Page believes that man, “the Life Force at its highest and most powerful,” is developing into “a final superhuman race”.’
TO Antonio Marichalar
MS Real Academia de la Historia
20 May 1922
12 Wigmore St
Monsieur,1
Je vous prie d’accepter toutes mes excuses; je n’ai pas répondu à votre gracieuse lettre du 11 avril, ma santé m’ayant empêché de m’occuper de mes affaires. Je vous serais bien reconnaissant de votre collaboration. Naturellement, la choix du sujet est à vous, mais au début, un essai critique sur la littérature espagnole contemporaine serait bien à propos.
Puisque la revue ne peut pas paraître avant le mois de septembre ou octobre, je vous écrirai plus tard pour vous rappeler votre promesse.
Croyez, monsieur, que nous sommes très fiers de votre collaboration, et agréez l’expression de toute ma sympathie.
T. S. Eliot
J’attends avec un grand intérêt le numéro de Indice.2 Vous trouverez un petit chronique de moi dans la Nouvelle Revue Française pour le mois de mai.3
1–Translation: Dear Sir, Please accept my sincere apologies; I did not reply to your kind letter of 11 April, my health preventing me from tackling any business. I will be very glad of your participation. Naturally, the choice of subject is up to you, but at the outset, a critical essay on contemporary Spanish literature would be most appropriate.
Since the review cannot appear before September or October, I will write later to remind you of your promise.
Believe me, dear Sir, that we are very proud of your participation, and I send my very best wishes. T. S. Eliot
I look forward with great interest to the issue of Indice. You will find a little chronicle by me in the May Nouvelle Revue Française.
2–Indice: Spanish review edited by Juan Ramón Jimenez.
3–TSE, ‘Lettre d’Angleterre’, NRF 18 (1 May 1922).
TO Gilbert Seldes
MS Beinecke
20 May 1922
12 Wigmore St
My dear Mr Seldes,
Thank you for your letter of the 4th inst. Yes, I have got Ulysses, and am toiling over it fitfully, and hope to produce a ‘full dress’ review in a month or so. It is a big job. I also have under way a long delayed article on Marianne Moore.
I apologise for the enclosed ‘Letter’ (July) for two reasons. First, my health having given out again, I have been living at a hotel outside of town and have written this (the only thing I have written for two months) under great difficulties, so I hope you will excuse MSS. instead of typescript. I should feel less apologetic about this if I thought it a good ‘Letter’. You were kind enough to say that the last had a good press – I was not satisfied with it myself, and I am sure that this is inferior. It has been accomplished under great strain, but that will not excuse its shortcomings.
I am writing on the eve of a 4t nights holiday, but please address me here until June. On June 20th I return to 9 Clarence Gate Gardens N.W.1.
I think the last number, barring my ‘Letter’, is a very good one.
Sincerely yours
T. S. Eliot
I hope my writing can be read!
I apologise and am keenly aware both of the excessive brevity and the inferiority. I have been out of touch with things, and my mind is in a very deteriorated state, due to illness and worry. Had it been possible to withhold this over my holiday, I should not be sending it, and if you think it too poor to use, do not scruple to throw it in the basket.
TO Richard Cobden-Sanderson
MS Texas
20 May 1922
12 Wigmore St
Dear Cobden-Sanderson,
I have not been idle during the last two months, although I have been handicapped by a good deal of illness and worry. This is just to tell you that I have copied out a list of about six hundred names and addresses from the Hogarth Press, but I think I had better type it out so that your staff can read it. I am just off for a fortnight’s holiday which I badly need, being rather run down, and hope you will be in town at the beginning of June. I will ring you up immediately on my return, so that we can arrange an early meeting.
With best wishes for your health.
Sincerely
T. S. Eliot
TO Alfred A. Knopf
MS Texas
20 May 1922
12 Wigmore St
Dear Mr Knopf,
Thank you for your kind letter of the 1st inst. It is true that I am most anxious to publish my poem in America in the autumn, on account of copyright. I shall hope within a year or so to have a prose book to offer you.
With best wishes, I am
Yours faithfully,
T. S. Eliot
TO Leonard Woolf
MS Princeton
20 May 1922
12 Wigmore St
Dear Woolf,
Your letter and MS. arrived just in time, as I am just leaving for a 4tnight’s holiday. I am delighted to have this Dostoevski, and should like very much to know how much more there is or will be of this chapter, and whether the rest cd be printed in subsequent issues [of the Criterion].1 Also how soon are you anxious to bring it out as a book. I cannot use this till October as it is impossible to start in June.
The paper would pay, by the way, at first at the rate of £10 per 5000 words, and it would not be lower than that, later.
I have been invited to Lugano for a fortnight and shall be back early in June. I should be glad to hear that Virginia is well again: it takes some time for a person to pull up again after these high temperatures –.
With many thanks
Yours
T. S. Eliot
Poste Restante – Lugano
1–See F. M. Dostoevsky, ‘Plan of the Novel, “The Life of a Great Sinner”’ (trans. S. S. Koteliansky and VW), C. 1: 1 (Oct. 1922), 16–33.
TO Hermann Hesse
MS Schweizerisches Literaturachiv
24 May 1922
Hotel Bristol, Lugano [Switzerland]
Lieber u. geehrter Herr Hesse,
Sie werden sich erinnern, dass ich Ihnen aus London geschrieben habe. Jetzt bin ich nach Lugano gekommen, und bleibe noch zehn Tage. Es wäre mir eine grosse Ehre und Vergnügen, wenn ich Sie besuchen möchte, und mit dem Verfasser von ‘Blick ins Chaos’ sprechen. Ich habe ganz klar gestgestellt, dass ich nur wening wenig deutsch kann hier ohne Wörterbuch oder Dolmetscher! Jedenfalls würde ich mit Ihnen eine Unterhaltung haben.
Möchte ich Sie einladen, auf Frietag oder Samstag Thee zu nehmen?
Empfangen Sie, lieber Herr Hesse, der Austruck meiner besonderer Hochachtung.
T. S. Eliot1
1–Translation: Dear and esteemed Herr Hesse, You will remember that I wrote to you from London. I have now arrived in Lugano and am staying here for another ten days. It would be a great honour and pleasure if I could visit you and speak with the author of In Sight of Chaos. I have made it clear that I know only a little German here without a dictionary or interpreter! Nevertheless I would love to have a conversation with you.
Could I invite you to have tea on either Friday or Su
nday?
Please accept, Herr Hesse, the expression of my greatest respects. T. S. Eliot
TO Mary Hutchinson
PC Texas
[Postmark 27 May 1922]
Lugano
Specialità Asti Spumante fresca Barolo Lagrima Christi PILSNER URQUELLE oggi sera festa di lago illuminazione del lido fuochi di artifice.
Soit que tu vives près de Dieu
Ou aux Champs Elysées, adieu,
Adieu 1000 fois, adieu Marie …1
1–Sent from Italian-speaking Switzerland, this polyglot postcard can be loosely translated: ‘Specialities fresh Asti Spumante Barolo Lachrima Christi PILSNER URQUELLE today there’s a lake festival the lido in lights fireworks.
Whether you live near God
Or the Champs Elysées, adieu
A thousand times adieu, Marie …’
TO Ottoline Morrell
PC Texas
8 May 1922
Lugano
I wonder if you know this lake – it is very beautiful, though too much hotels, casino, and American trippers. But smothered in roses and wisteria. I shd like six months of Italy and heat and sunshine, and have never felt quite so lazy and languid.