by T. S. Eliot
Can I lucidify further. The Criterion is ‘good’ so long as it is a tube down which Lady R.’s or someone elses funds flow toward YOU.
As a hole into which our funds < = or funds to be raised by us>, wd. have to be poured to feed IT, it is not good. It is another printer to feed.
It is estimable as a high court of letters, position now held by the Dial, against which there is no appeal save to you (or possibly to the Three Mts. Press) incontrastabile [sic] e gravoso.1
It is merely a question of whether the bank is more exhausting than Crit. plus 6 Times articles, plus six squibs for Dial. Plus any further or more lucrative sinches you cd. devise.
Lady R. is a natural force, to be exploited. One does not ask reason (ratio), rationationation of the ocean currents.
As next move, I suggest that you write to her, admitting dullness, saying that Stsby. is the best of a set of necessary evils. That the format is universally commended. That I have tried to communicate with her and have written to you to know her whereabouts.
Is she paying the bills? to date?? As long as she goes on doing that
Ask not for roses
Ask not for wreathèd crowns,
Owners are hell
Complain not of her frowns
Who pays. I tremble, friend to think
What Quinn had said
Were this price on his head;
If from his purse the price
were drawn to stipendate
Old Stsbury and old Stg Moore
Or if decorum, neath such staid device
Trundled across the sward, where we of late
Did BLAST, and mocked the Times,
used ‘merde’ to tip our rhymes
et cetera
What can a bunch of skirts
against the cob
Of Sweeney? belittle hence thy hurts
and buck the job.
Bigob.
Seems to me easier (IF the cash will continue to flow from Lady R.) to keep her tolerating a ‘politic’ dullness, holding her to bait of greater liveliness at a steadily disappearing future,
THAN to find new capital. ANY other owner wd. have ideas about the magazine, and probably want to WRITE in it, and have his or her friends in greater numbers.
The last subscriber to B[el] E[sprit] (new this week) talked of starting a magazine with Hem.2 (upon which Hem brought him to me) but he wdn’t stand the Crit. for ten minutes. he’d want Sandburg or Lindsey, or possibly Sterling3 (he don’t admire the latter’s poesy, but thinks him the best fooker in California.) says ‘George is a great boy.’
I can’t see ANY capital for a conservative quarterly. Apart from Thayer and Lady R. all the capital I know wd. prefer my position to yours.
I dont see a ‘jeunes’ magazine. Hueffer and I cdnt. see a ‘jeunes’ magazine two years ago. Hence the 3 Mts. brochures. Minimum expense on printing. For maximum meaning.
When I say I want you out of bank I mean I want you relieved of strain before you crever [burst].
I agree with Lenin, that those who have lived under the old dispensation are no good; only hope of a node of civilization lies in bringing in new blood.
Hem. is more intelligent than Saintsbury. I dont expect anyone save me and Linc. Steffens,4 and Soiseau [Bird], and Hem’s present boss to think so, YET. For purposes of an Eng. Quarterly, Stsb. is more opportune.
You did? get the fact that I approved of yr. editing; of the editorial feat of No. 1. Crit. Misunderstanding seems to lie in interpretation [of] my loose phrase ‘become a property’, used at a time when I was ignorant and wholly unsuspicious of a rift in the Eliot–Rothermere lute, thinking the £1200 of opening expenses guaranteed by Lady R.
Has she seen the favourable press notices? and does she know edtn. is nearly sold out?
I think youre right about ole Fraser, never heard of the other ole blokes. Whibley is a complete shit who used to write horsepiss in the Daily Mail, but is said to have written good 17th century essays at one time.
Have I, caro mio, have I protested against anything except the expenditure of £500, for the shadow of a name, substance of which cd. be had for the grabbing.??
Vale et me ama [farewell and with my love]
E.5
1–‘Giudicio incontastabile gravoso’ [‘judgment severe and incontestible’], Dante, ‘Morte villana, di pietà nemica’, 3 (Vita Nuova VIII).
2–Ernest Hemingway.
3–Carl Sandburg (1878–1967), poet and biographer; Vachel Lindsay (1879–1931), poet known as the ‘Prairie Troubadour’; George Sterling (1869–1926), prolific poet and mentor of Robinson Jeffers.
4–Lincoln Steffens (1866–1936), American journalist, best known for his statement after a visit to the Soviet Union in 1921, ‘I’ve been over into the future, and it works.’
5–On the verso of the last sheet, VHE wrote: ‘Would like to go over this letter with you. Send a line, and promise to write fully in a week. The man needs dealing with now. Send a line at once, and say drily that you have seen D[orothy] twice.’
FROM Ezra Pound
TS copy Valerie Eliot
10 November [1922]
70 bis, N.D. de C.
Cher T:
I enclose communique from that hot bitch Lady R., somewhat lacking, perhaps in veracity,1
She was in the summer ready to raise funds for your release. She SAID she had got a donation of 1000 dollars down. I shd. like to have that transferred to B[el] E[sprit] treasury, or to you, before the explosion.
/ / /
She SAID she had a plan to propose, when I met her with Higgins; she also parted saying she wd. call in two days. Then exit. she disappeared.
/ / /
I dont, of course, know what upset her.
Possibly the appearance of Waste Land in Dial may be not unalien to the row. She said in the summer that the Dial could NOT have it, because it was to go into the Crit.
That may be the fly in her cunt-salve.
/ / /
However I supply you with all possible data. She, as per enclosed, has highest esteem for you, and considers the 1st number of Crit. successful.
I suggest that
I don’t see any other line that will gather up that 1000 dollars (which for all of me, may be transferred to you at once, without waiting for B. E. [Bel Esprit] subsidy.)
I dont see that anything is to be gained by having her continue in the idea that you consider the bank a pleasure ‘even if it is exhausting’.
I think she hates Thayer and Watson, especially the former. The latter hates her. and that she is possibly wroth over the Dial coup. However that is four times as much in yr. pocket as you wd. get from her in a year, and Watson at any rate is a better proposition than she is. I am inclined to prefer S. T. to her, in the light of present events. Her present illumination seems to confirm their versioni of her N.Y. escapade. escapade = eschaper.
Of curse, Caro mio, I have, by the herein enclosed epistle of yr. friend, been ‘deeply insulted,’ I the distinguished man of letters, etc. by a lowbrowed ranting bitch (as V. so aptly calls her).
Now, carino, do be sensible, do not be disturbed by Lady R., consider the course of the moon, watch the day of the month on which her frothings occurr.
Raveth she one way on the first day, she will rave again on the 29th. day, thus with regular or irregular intervals according as to the processes of her endocrines.
Brewster hath said, ‘Never treat with the female client, save in the presence of the male relative’.
and Jackson hath said ‘For three days in every month is every woman a stark raving lunatic.’
&n
bsp; Considering which things, I who have nothing to gain from her Bitchshipp have replied to her with a courteous letter, employing soft words, yea even now, O Tomasso.
I have said that you are ‘heart and soul’ in the Crit. and that I believe you wd. leave the bank, under suitable circumstances.
I think you can assume that position, at least until the 1000 bones, have been transferred, either to you, or to Richard [Aldington]’s formally organized committee of trustees. (or at least till we have tried to get it shifted.)
If you wd. keep me more au courrant, I might play this game of halma a bit better. but if you are too tired to write, dont bother.
Tu ne reponds rien, rien, rien, rien, à mes questions, tu le sais, cochon!!!???> Jam-, jam-, jHDammais.2
Did I say that another solid B. E. subscription had come in? and that the secretary of the Persian legation in Washington also approves. Do you want a job on the Persian finance commission?
Have you any kick ref my article in Nov. Dial?? If so shoot it along. I’m a glutton for punishment.
Only dont take Lilian [Rothermere] to heart, be not wroth with a menstrous woman.
yours
E
1–Headed ‘“Claridges”, Paris. 8th Nov. 1922’, Lady Rothermere’s letter reads:
‘I am seriously disturbed to hear from you that Eliot is in such a bad state of health.
‘You write however of the editorship of The Criterion as if it were a large monthly review or even a weekly one instead of a slender quarterly! The production of The Criterion is not at all a vital matter to me.
‘I offered to be responsible for the financial support of it because several friends of mine assured me under the direction of Eliot such a quarterly would do much towards the furtherance of the influence of Eliot and others, which would also be an excellent thing for English literature.
‘Several months after Eliot had undertaken to produce The Criterion, I wrote and assured him that he was in no way ever morally bound to see the thing through, and he replied that he was wholly interested in it heart and soul.
‘I have the greatest possible friendship and esteem for Eliot and consider that he has most successfully produced the first number. If this extra work can in any way be injuring Eliot as you think I would infinitely prefer that the production should cease.
‘However I do not believe honestly that the appearance of The Criterion is in any way responsible for Eliot’s present state of health. Don’t you think you exaggerate a little?
‘I believe Eliot is nervous and run down because of the effect of years of lack of fresh air, exercise and proper nourishment on a delicate constitution. With regard to the suggestion that he should leave the bank I really do not think that it is anyone’s business but Eliot’s and my impression is that he likes the work even if it is exacting.
‘I am leaving for London in a few days and shall certainly see Eliot and hope to find his state of health less grave than you think.’
2–‘You tell me nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing in response to my questions, as you know, pig! Nev-, nev-, never.’
TO Richard Cobden-Sanderson
MS Beinecke
12 November 1922
The Criterion, 9 Clarence Gate Gdns, London N.W.1
Dear Cobden-Sanderson,
As I just told you on the telephone I forgot to include the payment due to F. S. Flint for translating the German article [by Hermann Hesse]. The article is 1484 words which for this purpose I will call 1500 and at the usual rate of 15/-per 1000 we therefore owe to him £1.2.6. You have his address, as he is a subscriber.
Yours,
T. S. Eliot
Have you any news from Paget about placing American copies? This ought to be hurried on, so that we can know how many of No 2 to print.
I notice that the Agencies who send MSS. to you do not usually send stamps. What do they expect?
TO Gilbert Seldes
TS Timothy and Marian Seldes
12 November 1922
The Criterion, 9 Clarence Gate Gdns
Dear Mr Seldes,
I am afraid that I have not thanked you for your cheque of $130. This is due to the fact that it arrived while I was at the seaside taking a muchneeded rest, and while I was there I neither received nor wrote any letters. I must also thank you for your letter of the 10th ulto. and for your review of Ulysses in the Nation which I think extremely interesting and valuable and which I should have liked to see in its complete form. It is on the whole much more satisfactory than any other review of the book that I have seen and I shall find it still more difficult to say anything about the book myself.1
I am sending you a few circulars of the Criterion, and I trust you have received the first number which I had sent to you. Now sold out. So far, no steps have been taken toward acquiring American subscribers. This is owing to the appearance of my poem in the first number; I do not want the first number to be put upon the American market as it would have been unfair in view of the almost simultaneous appearance of the poem in the Dial. I am looking forward to receiving the Nov. no.; Liveright’s proof was on the whole very good indeed and I have no doubt that the appearance in the Dial will be equally good.
I hope that you received my cable in time to make use of my valedictory letter on Marie Lloyd for the December number.2
Yours always sincerely,
T. S. Eliot
November number just received. Poem admirably printed. I see some remarks by you which I find very flattering2 – But I find this poem as far behind me as ‘Prufrock’ now: my present ideas are very different. Thanks for hint: I want to deal with the ‘intellectual love of God’ later.3
1–Seldes described Ulysses (Nation [NY], 30 Aug. 1922, 211–12) as a ‘monstrous and magnificent travesty’, and called JJ ‘possibly the most formidable writer of our time’. TSE’s review, ‘Ulysses, Order and Myth’, came out in Dial 75: 5 (Nov. 1923), 480–3.
2–‘London Letter’, Dial 73: 6 (Dec. 1922); repr., with revision, as ‘In memoriam: Marie Lloyd’, C. 1: 2 (Jan. 1923), 192–5, and as ‘Marie Lloyd’ (SE).
3–Seldes wrote, ‘Until I had read The Waste Land by Mr Eliot I believed that Ulysses was the only complete expression of the spirit which will be “modern” for the next generation’ (‘Nineties – Twenties – Thirties’, Dial 73: 5, Nov. 1922, 577).
4–Seldes’s paragraph about TSE and JJ concluded: ‘That infinite intellectual love which God has for himself, according to Spinoza, is perhaps the last remaining contact of this age with what is divine.’ In ‘The Perfect Critic’ (SW), which also invokes Spinoza, TSE had written: ‘without a labour which is largely a labour of the intelligence, we are unable to attain that stage of vision amor intellectualis Dei’.
TO Richard Cobden-Sanderson
PC Beinecke
13 November 1922
[London]
Thank you for your letter and statement of disbursements. I hope that you can manage Thursday: if not, can you let me know definitely by Thursday morning, if I telephone you about noon?
Yrs,
T.S.E.
Can give you larger part of MSS. on Thursday.
TO Ezra Pound
PC Lilly
14 November 1922
[London]
I sat down to write to you tonight but am so very tired that I cannot. I will try again tomorrow –
Yrs. ever
T. S. E.
TO Richard Aldington
TS Texas
15 November 1922
9 Clarence Gate Gardens, N.W.1
Dear Richard,
I was very glad to get your letter and enclosures. As for my health, I am very tired, but this is not unusual. As for The Waste Land, that is a thing of the past so far as I am concerned and I am now feeling toward a new form and style.
I do not know how the Dial separated the prefix of ‘Apothanein’;1 I spelt it out carefully enough for them.
Ezra’s Paris Letter is certainly excellent.2 As for the Phoen
ix and the Turtle I do not see what you mean by a parody of Donne; I wish you would quote me phrases of Donne of which it seems to you reminiscent.3 I expect that the person who praised it was Murry; I do not know of anyone else except myself who has ever expressed admiration for it.
Your notice of the Criterion ought certainly to boost its circulation in America.
Your poem I much enjoyed; I can pay it the compliment of saying that it makes one realise how far this excellent instrument of the seventeenth century is deteriorated in the hands of Georgian versifiers. Have you studied with any care Bishop King in Saintsbury’s collection? He seems to me one of the finest and I have long desired to write a short paper about him.4 I want to write something about Cowley5 also, undeterred by the fact that you preceded me and probably know a great deal more about him.
As I hoped, your visit to Italy seems to have stimulated you; I think your article on Pastoral Drama might be a valuable one,6 and I hope you will write it. I know nothing about these people, but the verses which you quote give me pleasure. Do write it.
Yours ever,
T. S. E.
May I keep poem or not?
1–In the epigraph to The Waste Land ‘άποθανει∧ν’ was printed ‘άπο θανει∧ν’.
2–EP, Dial, Nov. 1922, partly about Bel Esprit.