by T. S. Eliot
MS Beinecke
16 October 1922
The Criterion, 9 Clarence Gate Gdns
Dear Sanderson,
Thank you for your letter, and for the six copies. The appearance of the paper is all that I could have desired; it is a model. I hope that the appearance and a few favourable notices will double the subscriptions!
Yours ever
T. S. Eliot
TO Sydney Schiff
MS BL
Monday [16 October 1922]
The Criterion, 9 Clarence Gate Gdns
Dear Sydney,
Thank you very deeply for your letter. You could not have used words which would have given me more pleasure or have so persuaded me that the poem may possibly communicate something of what it intends. But I cannot expect to find many critics so sympathetic.
Gratefully
Tom.
Vivien Eliot TO Sydney Schiff
MS BL
Monday [16 October 1922]
9 Clarence Gate Gdns
Dear Mr Schiff,
Tom has shown me your letter to him, and I want to thank you on my own account for showing such real and true appreciation of The Waste Land. Perhaps not even you can imagine with what emotions I saw The Waste Land go out into the world. It means to me a great deal of what you have exactly described, and it has become a part of me (or I of it) this last year. It was a terrible thing, somehow, when the time came at last for it to be published. I have been distracted these last two days. Yours is the first word that has reached us, and your letter was unexpectedly moving.
I am glad, too, that you like the Criterion. It seems to me an achievement, by a man who has only his evenings, tired out by eight hours in the City, and who fills hot water bottles, and makes invalid food for his wretchedly unhealthy wife, in between writing!
I hope I’ll see you both before I go away.
Very much love to Violet
Yrs. ever
Vivien.
TO Richard Cobden-Sanderson
TS Beinecke
18 October 1922
The Criterion, 9 Clarence Gate Gdns
Dear Cobden-Sanderson,
Here are the names and addresses of two reviews to which a German correspondent has strongly recommended sending review copies:–
1. Der Neue Merkur,
Munchen,
Theresienstrasse, 12,
Germany.
2. Die Neue Rundschau
Berlin W.,
Bulowstrasse, 90,
Germany.
The copies should be marked ‘For review and exchange’, and I will write to these people later separately. I think it might be well to send a copy in the same manner to:–
Il Convegno,
Via Canova, 25,
Milan,
Italy,
as I understand it is one of the most intelligent of the Italian Reviews.
I am going away at the end of the week for about a fortnight’s rest. I shall not give out my address as I do not want to be bothered by correspondence, but I will let you know where I am in order that you may communicate with me if necessary. I hope things are going well both with the Criterion and with your private affairs; I sincerely hope that you do not feel as tired as I do.
Yours ever,
T. S. Eliot
This was written last night. I have your letters. I think Lady R’s objections boil down to very little; do not concern yourself but leave it to me. They are mostly points for which I was responsible and which I have not changed my mind about. I shall write as soon as she replies to my letter.
TO F. S. Flint
TS Texas
18 October 1922
The Criterion, 9 Clarence Gate Gdns
Dear Flint,
I have had to devote all my attention up to the present date to the labour of getting out the first number; so that it has been quite impossible for me even to think about what to do with Gómez.1 When I come back I will send you back the papers and discuss with you what is to be done. I hope that we can meet and talk things over.
Yours sincerely,
T. S. Eliot
1–Ramón Gómez de la Serna, ‘From “The New Museum”’, was eventually published in C. 1: 2 (Jan. 1923), 196–201.
TO Ezra Pound
TS Lilly
22 October 1922
9 Clarence Gate Gdns
My dear Ezra,
I am glad to receive your expression of approbation of the first number. Of course I should be delighted to have a few poems of Yeats, but so far I have had to go on the principle of asking people whom for one reason or another I felt pretty sure of getting, and as Yeats does not particularly like me, I believe, there appeared no reason why he should consent if I wrote to him direct. Could you do anything in the matter? About Heuffer [sic] I have already explained to you my difficulties. I certainly do not want him for several numbers yet because there are a great many other people beside myself who do not like him: the difficulty, if I asked him, would be to get some of his really best work but not simply his egotistical meanderings about his own services to English literature. If you happen to hear however of his having done anything praiseworthy you might let me know.
I think it is particularly important to reserve the verse contributions to the really first-rate people. For that reason I should very much like to get Yeats. There ought of course to be some other less formal periodical in existence which would serve as a kindergarten for meritorious youth but I do not think that the Criterion can afford to print verse, for the present at least, except by people who really know their job. Hence my desire to get hold of Yeats. I do not see why we should not arrange later on to print some of your cantos in the same month in which they appear in the Dial. That is to say, if the Dial would print on the 25th of the month before one of our quarterly numbers it would be all right.
You will possibly observe in the list of contributors a few passengers who will have to walk the plank as soon as the ship gets out of sight of land.
Re the Dostoevski. Lady Rothermere has some early Swinburne manuscripts, one of which is quite good. I should like to print it in the next number.1 Have you any suspicion as to whether it would be necessary to get the consent of Gosse. Gosse is certainly the last person in England to give me any assistance if he could avoid it.
I presume you have heard from Quinn about the poem. Seldes and Watson have behaved extremely nicely and Quinn has been invaluable. I declined the Dial’s proposal when Watson made it to me direct for the reason that I did not want to put Quinn to the slightest further trouble after he had taken so much pains to make out a perfect contract for me with Liveright, so that the matter would never have been carried off unless it had been taken over my head.
Has anything been heard of Proust? I see that the Nouvelle Revue Française announce what appears to be a fragment from a new volume, to appear in their monthly magazine.2 Is this to be available for the Criterion?
I am off tomorrow for ten days at the seaside. I feel much too tired for the journey to Paris and simply want to get away to some dull place and ‘have left no addresses’.3 Will write on my return.
Yours,
T.
I regret profoundly not seeing you, otherwise I have no particular desire to go to Paris just now.
‘In old Manila harbour, the Yankee wardogs lay,
‘The stars and stripes streamed overhead, & the band began to play;
‘The band struck up the strains of the old Salvation Rag,
And from the quarter mizzentop there flew REAR ADMIRAL BARRY’S flag.’4
1–The Swinburne MSS did not appear in C.
2–Marcel Proust, ‘La Regarder Dormir’, NRF 19 (Nov. 1922), 513–22.
3–The Waste Land, l. 181.
4–Rear Admiral Edward B. Barry (1849–1938) became commander of the US Pacific Fleet, 2nd Division, in 1899. His flagship, the USS West Virginia, docked in Manila Harbour in
Oct.–Nov. 1909. He was forced to resign after forty-five years’ service in 1911, following an alleged liaison with a cabin boy. EP had suggested printing TSE’s verses about King Bolo, and wrote to him on 29 Aug.: ‘your admirer [John Peale] Bishop thinks of collecting Bawdy Ballads, of War and Peace. (the real folk litterchure, including “She Was Pore but she wuz honest” and others that ought n’t be left longer to the incertitudes of verbal tradition[)].’
Vivien Eliot TO Mary Hutchinson
MS Texas
[late 1922?]
Mary,
I have been thinking about our talk, and sounding Tom a little. I see now that if a small sum was, unconditionally, offered to him by the fund, and guaranteed, and if the Criterion then became a success or showed that it would ultimately become a success, Tom would automatically leave the Bank.
I am sure of this. But I think that any forcing or pressure to make him leave the Bank at this point would be very tactless, and bad policy.
So much depends on the Criterion.
As to the other question of the Left and Right – in my case I think I could, by a bold stroke, combine their forces. In this way – the Right, being in the ascendent, tolerates the Left, and recognises its usefulness. The Left admires and reveres the Right with its whole heart. Why not therefore, later, start a communal life with the Right and the Left, and perhaps a George, or even an adopted child – all together?
T. wants very much to ask Lytton but does not think Lytton would be at all likely to consent to write for the Criterion. But he will ask him I hope.
All this is private.
If you give me away on any point, I will never speak to you again, of course.
[Unsigned]
TO Georges Jean-Aubry1
MS Texas
1 November 1922
9 Clarence Gate Gdns
Mon cher Jean-Aubry
Je viens de rentrer – je trouve votre aimable lettre, mais je reviens trop tard pour paraître chez Lady Colefax.2 Voulez-vous dire à Valéry que je suis navré, c’est un grand chagrin de ne pas le voir – je le chercherai à Paris au printemps. Dites aussi que Charles Whibley3 (à Jesus College, Cambridge) aurait voulu le voir aussi. Si j’avais pu venir à Londres, j’aurais eu le dessin de donner un petit déjeuner – vous, Valéry, Whibley, et moi. Rendez à Valéry mes regrets et mes hommages sincères au premier poète de la France.
Merci de l’envoi de l’intéressante pièce suédoise. Envoyez-moi, je vous en prie, votre adresse, afin que je puisse vous en parler. Et quand pouvezvous me montrer votre Conrad?4 Ça pourrait se découper en 2 morceaux, ou vous pourriez l’abréger un peu, non?
Yours always,
T. S. Eliot
Rappelez moi à Madame Alvar, s’il vous plaît.
Je ferai expédier un numéro du Criterion à Valéry.5
1–Georges Jean-Aubry (1882–1950), critic of art, music and literature; author of La Musique Française d’aujourd’hui (1916), and Valery Larbaud: Sa vie et son oeuvre (1949).
2–Paul Valéry gave a talk on ‘La poésie et la langage’ (‘Poetry and Language’) at Argyll House, 211 King’s Road (with the permission of Lady Colefax), on 31 Oct. 1922. For Valéry’s visit to London in Oct. 1922, see Michel Jarrety, Paul Valéry (2008), 529–31.
3–Charles Whibley (1859–1930), scholar, critic and journalist, whose friendship was valuable to TSE. His ‘Bolingbroke’ was to appear in C. in Apr. and July 1923.
4–Nothing by Aubry was to appear in C.
5–Translation: My dear Jean-Aubry, I have just returned – I find your lovely letter but I’m back too late to appear at Lady Colefax’s. Would you tell Valéry that I am terribly disappointed, and that it is a great pity not to see him – I will look him up in Paris in the spring. Tell him also that Charles Whibley (of Jesus College, Cambridge) would have liked to see him too. If I had been able to come to London, I would have planned to give a small lunch – for you, Valéry, Whibley and myself. Please give Valéry my regrets and my sincere homage to the premier poet of France.
Thanks for sending the interesting Swedish piece. Please send me your address, so we can talk about it. And when can you show me your Conrad? It could be cut into two pieces or you could shorten it a bit, couldn’t you?
Yours always, T. S. Eliot
Remember me to Madame Alvar, please.
I will send a copy of the Criterion to Valéry.
Vivien Eliot TO Ezra Pound
MS Lilly
2 November [1922]
9 Clarence Gate Gdns
Dear Ezra,
1) T. is running down again. He keeps trying to write to you I know but in the meanwhile I am writing and this letter is PRIVATE.
2) – and most important – the Rothermere woman has been and is being offensive to T. about the Criterion. She has written three offensive letters and I am afraid this is going to bring about an awful crisis unless someone can be clever about it – in time. She is coming to London about the 15th and if when she sees T. she behaves in the same way as her letters I don’t see that he can do anything but throw up the Criterion – and I believe that is what she wants. She is unhinged – one of those beastly raving women who are the most dangerous. She is now in that asylum for the insane called La Prieuré1 where she does religious dances naked with Katherine Mansfield. ‘K.M.’, she says in every letter –‘is the most intelligent woman I have ever met.’ K. M. is pouring poison in her ear (of course) for K. M. hates T. more than anyone.
3) Can you get for T. this money (Bel Esp.) which you speak of in yr. letter,2 without the condition that he leaves the Bank immediately? If so – could he not buy the Criterion from Rothermere? Not using his own name in the transaction. I am sure a few people here would help in that, with small sums. She might be glad to sell it, now, for it may be that she is just furious at having promised the money for something she now hates and is bored with. She would not sell it later on if it began to pay. Do you think this is a possible idea? If so, how shall we do it – and can you get that money? T. would of course leave the Bank ultimately – and I know he could make the Criterion a success. I could provide £500 (it wd halve my income) – and wd gladly. Write at once.
VE
It could not be run at all under £400 a year.
1–A former Carmelite monastery at Fontainebleau where George Gurdjieff (1872–1949), a Russian mystic of Greek parentage who had left Russia about 1920, had re-established (with financial support from Lady Rothermere and others) his Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man, originally founded in Moscow in 1914. His followers participated in stylised dancing in order to attain a greater degree of consciousness. Katherine Mansfield was to die at La Prieuré on 9 Jan. 1923.
2–EP’s letter to TSE, dated ‘1 Hephaistos’ (1 Nov.), explained that ‘Bel Esprit’ had so far collected pledges of £230 for five years (including permanent pledges for £120), and Liveright’s pledge was yet to come. In all, £345 had been raised for the first year. EP concluded optimistically: ‘Seems a fair chance that one cd. proceed at same rate. You will have the Dial 2000 in case of any utter emergency … All I can add is that I am ready to use my best endeavours to keep the subsidy at £300 a year.’
TO Ezra Pound
MS Lilly
[3 November 1922]
[London]
Cher Ezra
Vivien wrote to you yesterday about the position I am in. Lady Rothermere has been getting increasingly offensive ever since the Criterion came out, and especially since she entered her retreat for maniacs. I wish you could see her before she leaves Paris and tell her bluntly that the Criterion is a SUCCESS. I have had nothing but good notices. Nearly all the copies are sold (600 printed). But this woman will shipwreck it.
V’s idea is to get the money somehow and buy the paper from her – before she has time or opportunity to make my position such that I must throw it up, on her hands. V. thinks she would take £500 for it now, especially if my name was kept out of it, and we could find some American who would
allow us to use his name in the purchase.
Can you not come over to London for a weekend and see me, as you know I cannot come to you.
If you and I could get the Criterion into our own hands and could only find the money to run it for a couple of years, it would be the thing of our lives.
Try to get over here to see me, and meanwhile don’t let a soul suspect that everything is not absolutely right between me and Rothermere.
T.
FROM Ezra Pound
TS Valerie Eliot
4 November [1922]
70 bis, N. D. des Champs, Paris vie
Cher T:
This shd. reach you on the anniversary of the Guy Fawks plot.
I answered V’s note last night, but had no means of knowing whether her letter was a familial consortium or her own impressions.1
I have this a.m. written to Lady R. asking for an interview. Last time I saw her she was affable, and said she was coming to tea, whereafter she vanished, and I did not know she was still in Paris. I wish you’d be specific. What is she trying to force into the Crit.
Of course if she says it looks like a corpse, she’s right, mon POSSUM, do you expect her to see what is scarce discernable to the naked eye, that it is supposed to be PLAYIN’ POSSUM
I think both you and V. are in delirium, thinking of payin £500 for the privilege of having worked six months. Bring out another number. Put in all our own stuff. IF, ever IF the bills have been and are being paid. £500 for a review that has run one issue?? Gees she’d be SOME financier if she cd. work that dimereena