Letters of T.S. Eliot: 1898-1922, Page 3

  1919 3 JANUARY – Henry Ware Eliot tells his brother that TSE is ‘getting along now and has been advanced at the bank so that he is independent of me’. 7 JANUARY – TSE’s father dies. 12 MARCH – He has been invited to become the Assistant Editor of The Athenaeum, TSE tells his mother. 6 APRIL – He informs Henry that he has declined the post. 4–14 MAY – TSE stays at the Hotel Constance, 23 Lancaster Gate, W.2. 11 MAY – The Eliots at Garsington. 12 MAY – Hogarth Press publishes Poems. 19 MAY – TSE is sent on a tour of the provinces by the bank ‘for some weeks’, returning at intervals. 9 JULY – TSE writes Quinn: [This] ‘part of Ulysses [Scylla and Charybdis] … struck me as almost the finest I have read: I have lived on it ever since I read it.’ 22 JULY – The Eliots accompany the Sacheverell Sitwells to the first night of Falla’s Three-Cornered Hat, performed by Massine and the Ballets Russes. 9 AUGUST – TSE leaves for a walking tour in the Dordogne with Ezra Pound, returning on 31 AUGUST. Vivien records that he was ‘very nice at first, depressed in the evening’. 29 SEPTEMBER – TSE meets Bruce Richmond, editor of the Times Literary Supplement, who admires his critical prose and invites him to write leading articles. 28 OCTOBER – Lectures on ‘Poetry’ under the auspices of the Arts League of Service in the Conference Hall, Westminster. 13 NOVEMBER – His first contribution, ‘Ben Jonson’, appears in the TLS. DECEMBER – The Egoist ceases publication.

  1920 Early FEBRUARY – The Ovid Press publishes Ara Vos Prec. Late FEBRUARY – Knopf issues Poems in New York. 15 AUGUST – TSE meets James Joyce in Paris, and the following day leaves with Lewis for a painting and cycling holiday in northern France. 20 SEPTEMBER – The first mention of The Waste Land to his mother: ‘I want a period of tranquillity to do a poem I have in mind.’ 4 NOVEMBER – Methuen publishes The Sacred Wood. The current Dial contains his first contribution, ‘The Possibility of a Poetic Drama’. Later that month the Eliots move to 9 Clarence Gate Gardens, N.W.1. 2 DECEMBER – Tells his mother that he is ‘rather tired of [the essays] now, as I am so anxious to get on to new work, and I should more enjoy being praised if I were engaged on something which I thought better or more important. I think I shall be able to do so, soon.’

  1921 SUNDAY 20 MARCH – TSE dines with the Woolfs and accompanies them to the Phoenix Society production of Congreve’s Love for Love at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, and on 24 APRIL, with Edgar Jepson, sees Sybil Thorndyke in The Witch of Edmonton. 9 MAY – He tells Quinn that he is ‘wishful to finish’ a long poem which is now ‘partly on paper’. 10 JUNE – His mother, Marian and Henry arrive on the SS Adriatic, and occupy 9 Clarence Gate Gardens. TSE and Vivien move to 12 Wigmore Street. JULY – TSE and Scofield Thayer wonder if they can interest Lady Rothermere in establishing an international review, comprising the Dial in America and a new magazine edited by TSE in London, but by the beginning of August she has decided, partly for financial reasons, to confine herself to an English review. 16 AUGUST – TSE confides to Richard Aldington ‘in strict confidence that there is a possibility of a new literary venture’ [Criterion]. 20 AUGUST – TSE’s family return to America. Towards the end of SEPTEMBER TSE’s health breaks down. He sees a specialist who orders him to have three months’ complete rest and change, and the bank gives him leave. 15 OCTOBER – Goes to the Albemarle Hotel, Margate. Vivien joins him for part of the time. While there he decides to become a patient of Dr Vittoz in Lausanne. 12 NOVEMBER – Returns to London. 18 NOVEMBER – The Eliots go to Paris, and Pound sees some drafts of The Waste Land. 22? NOVEMBER – TSE leaves for Lausanne. Vivien remains in Paris. DECEMBER – TSE continues working on The Waste Land.

  1922 2 JANUARY – TSE rejoins Vivien in Paris. Pound writes Quinn, ‘Eliot came back from his Lausanne specialist looking O.K.; and with a damn good poem (19 pages) in his suitcase; same finished up here; and shd. be out in Dial soon, if Thayer isn’t utterly nutty … About enough, Eliot’s poem, to make the rest of us shut up shop’ (21 FEB.). 12 JANUARY – TSE returns to London alone and succumbs to flu. Vivien goes to Lyons for about a week and plans to spend a few more days in Paris before following him. Mid-MARCH – Disturbed by reports from Aldington that TSE ‘was going to pieces’, Pound revives an earlier scheme to enable TSE to leave Lloyds Bank. Called ‘Bel Esprit’, the aim is to find thirty guarantors of £10 a year. 17 MAY – The Eliots at the Castle Hotel, Tunbridge Wells. TSE writes Ottoline Morrell that his forthcoming visit to Italy ‘will just save me from another breakdown, which I felt was impending’. 20 MAY – TSE tells Gilbert Seldes that his mind is ‘in a very deteriorated state, due to illness and worry’. Goes to Lugano for a fortnight. 11 JUNE – TSE dines with the Woolfs; Virginia records in her diary that he read The Waste Land. ‘He sang it & chanted it, rhythmed it. It has great beauty&force of phrase: symmetry;&tensity.’ JULY – He receives $200 from the Carnegie Fund of the US Authors’ Club. Ottoline Morrell launches the Eliot Fellowship Fund which involves Virginia Woolf and Aldington. It continues, on and off, until December 1927. AUGUST – TSE judges the Lloyds Bank Short Story Competition, and a Satirical Poem on the Housing Problem or the Cost of Living. 7 SEPTEMBER – Quinn arranges with Seldes and Liveright that TSE will get the Dial award of $2,000. 15 OCTOBER – First number of the Criterion. It contains The Waste Land, which also appears in the Dial. 16 NOVEMBER – Liverpool Post accuses him of accepting £800 raised by admirers to enable him to leave Lloyds Bank, and then refusing to do so. 30 NOVEMBER – Liverpool Post publishes TSE’s reply and apologises. 15 DECEMBER – Boni and Liveright publishes The Waste Land in New York. TSE inscribes a copy ‘For Ezra Pound il miglior fabbro’ [the better master].

  ABBREVIATIONS AND SOURCES

  PUBLISHED WORKS BY T. S. ELIOT

  ASG After Strange Gods (London: Faber & Faber, 1934)

  AVP Ara Vos Prec (London: The Ovid Press, 1920)

  CP The Cocktail Party (London: Faber & Faber, 1950)

  CPP The Complete Poems and Plays of T. S. Eliot (London: Faber & Faber, 1969)

  EE Elizabethan Essays (London: Faber & Faber, 1934)

  FLA For Lancelot Andrewes: Essays on Style and Order (London: Faber & Gwyer, 1928)

  FR The Family Reunion (London: Faber & Faber, 1939)

  HJD Homage to John Dryden: Three Essays on Poetry of the Seventeenth Century (London: The Hogarth Press, 1924)

  KEPB Knowledge and Experience in the Philosophy of F. H. Bradley (London: Faber & Faber, 1964; New York: Farrar, Straus & Company, 1964)

  IMH Inventions of the March Hare: Poems 1909–1917, ed. Christopher Ricks (London: Faber & Faber, 1996)

  OPP On Poetry and Poets (London: Faber & Faber, 1957; New York: Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1957)

  P Poems (London: The Hogarth Press, 1919)

  P 1909–1925 Poems 1909–1925 (London: Faber & Gwyer, 1925)

  POO Prufrock and Other Observations (London: The Egoist Press, 1917)

  SA Sweeney Agonistes: Fragments of an Aristophanic Melodrama (London: Faber & Faber, 1932)

  SE Selected Essays: 1917–1932 (London: Faber & Faber, 1932; 3rd English edn., London and Boston: Faber & Faber, 1951)

  SW The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism (London: Methuen & Co., 1920)

  TCC To Criticise the Critic (London: Faber & Faber, 1965; New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1965)

  TUPUC The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism: Studies in the Relation of Criticism to Poetry in England (London: Faber & Faber, 1933)

  TWL The Waste Land (1922, 1923)

  TWL: Facs The Waste Land: A Facsimile and Transcript of the Original Drafts, ed. Valerie Eliot (London: Faber & Faber, 1971; New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1971)

  VMP The Varieties of Metaphysical Poetry, ed. Ronald Schuchard (London: Faber & Faber, 1993; New York: Harcourt Brace, 1994)

  PERIODICALS AND PUBLISHERS

  A. The Athenaeum (see also N&A)

  C. The Criterion

  F&G Faber & Gwyer (publishers)

  F&F Faber & Faber (publishers)

  IJE International Journal of Ethics

&nbs
p; N. The Nation

  N&A The Nation & The Athenaeum

  NC New Criterion

  NRF La Nouvelle Revue Française

  NS New Statesman

  TLS Times Literary Supplement

  PERSONS

  AH Aldous Huxley

  BD Bonamy Dobrée

  BR Bertrand Russell

  CW Charles Whibley

  CWE Charlotte Ware Eliot, TSE’s mother

  DHL D. H. Lawrence

  EP Ezra Pound

  EVE (Esmé) Valerie Eliot

  GCF Geoffrey (Cust) Faber

  HR Herbert Read

  HWE Henry Ware Eliot (TSE’s brother)

  IPF Irene Pearl Fassett (TSE’s secretary)

  JDH John Davy Hayward

  JJ James Joyce

  JMM John Middleton Murry

  LW Leonard Woolf

  MH Mary Hutchinson

  OM Ottoline Morrell

  RA Richard Aldington

  RC-S Richard Cobden-Sanderson

  SS Sydney Schiff

  TSE T. S. Eliot

  VHE Vivien Haigh Eliot

  VW Virginia Woolf

  WBY W. B. Yeats

  ARCHIVE COLLECTIONS

  Arkansas Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Arkansas

  BL British Library, London

  Beinecke The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University

  Berg Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, New York Public Library

  Bodleian The Bodleian Library, Oxford University

  Bonn Universitäts und Landesbibliothek, Bonn University

  Buffalo Lockwood Memorial Library, State University of New York at Buffalo

  Bundesarchiv German Federal Archives, Koblenz

  Chicago Special Collections, The Joseph Regenstein Library, University of Chicago

  Cornell Department of Rare Books, Olin Library, Cornell University

  Fondren Fondren Library, Woodson Research Center, Rice University

  Gallup Donald Gallup Papers, The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University

  Gardner Museum Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, Massachusetts

  Harvard University Archives, Harvard University

  Hornbake Hornbake Library, University of Maryland

  Houghton The Houghton Library, Harvard University

  Huntington Huntington Library, California

  King’s Modern Archive Centre, King’s College, Cambridge

  Lilly Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington

  LSE British Library of Political and Economic Science, London School of Economics

  McMaster Mills Memorial Library, McMaster University. Hamilton, Ontario

  Milton Academy Milton, Massachusetts

  MIT The Weiner Papers Institute Archives, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.

  Reed College Portland, Oregon

  Mugar Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University

  NYPL (MS) New York Public Library (Manuscripts Division)

  Northwestern Special Collections, Northwestern University Library, Evanston, Illinois

  Princeton Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library

  Rosenbach Rosenbach Museum and Library, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

  Texas The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin

  Tulsa Department of Special Collections, McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa, Oklahoma

  UCLA University of California at Los Angeles

  Vichy Bibliothèque Municipale, Vichy

  Victoria Special Collections, McPherson Library, University of Victoria, British Columbia

  Virginia Alderman Library, University of Virginia Library

  Washington Washington University Library, St Louis, Missouri

  Williams College Williamstown, Massachusetts

  EDITORIAL NOTES

  The source of each letter is indicated at the top right. CC indicates a carbon copy. Where no other source is shown it may be assumed that the original or a carbon copy is in the Valerie Eliot collection or at the Faber and Faber Archive.

  del. deleted

  MS manuscript

  n. d. no date

  PC postcard

  SC. scilicet: namely

  TS typescript

  < > indicates a word or words brought in from another part of the letter.

  Place of publication is London, unless otherwise stated.

  Ampersands and squiggles have been replaced by ‘and’, except where they occur in correspondence with Ezra Pound.

  Some obvious typing or manuscript errors have been silently corrected.

  Dates have been standardised.

  Some words and figures which were abbreviated have been expanded.

  Punctuation has occasionally been adjusted.

  Editorial insertions are indicated by square brackets.

  Words both italicised and underlined signify double underlining in the original copy.

  Where possible a biographical note accompanies the first letter to or from a correspondent. Where appropriate, this brief initial note will also refer the reader to the Glossary of Names at the end of the text.

  Vivienne Eliot liked her husband and friends to spell her name Vivien; but as there is no consistency, it is printed as written.

  26 September 1888

  St Louis, Missouri

  ‘Young Thomas (Stearns for his Grandfather) came forth at 7.45 this a.m. I like the name for your sake, and shall always feel as though that part of it was for you, though the prime cause was the other …’1

  13 April 1943

  Cambridge, Massachusetts

  ‘When you were a tiny boy, learning to talk, you used to sound the rhythm of sentences without shaping words – the ups and downs of the thing you were trying to say. I used to answer you in kind, saying nothing yet conversing with you as we sat side by side on the stairs at 2635 Locust Street. And now you think the rhythm before the words in a new poem! … Such a dear little boy!’2

  1–Henry Ware Eliot to his elder brother, the Reverend Thomas Lamb Eliot (ms Houghton).

  2–Ada Eliot Sheffield (1869–1943), the first-born, in her last letter to TSE, written while she was dying of cancer (MS Valerie Eliot). She and TSE were intellectually close; he described her as the Mycroft to his Sherlock Holmes. She has in mind The Music of Poetry (1942): ‘I know that a poem, or a passage of a poem, may tend to realize itself first as a particular rhythm before it reaches expression in words, and that this rhythm may bring to birth the idea and the image.’

  THE LETTERS

  1898–1922

  1898

  TO His Father1

  MS Houghton

  Thurs. 23–24 June 1898

  Gloucester2 [Massachusetts]

  Dear Papa,

  It is very cool here when we get up – that is, indoors, outdoors it is just right. We have no sunflowers, there were two in the rosebed, and Marion weeded them up. I found the things in the upper tray of my trunk all knocked about. A microscope was broken and a box of butterflies and a spider.

  Charlotte and I hunt for birds. She found a empty nest yesterday (23d). Marion, Margret (?) & Henry are going to Class-day.3

  Yours Truly,

  Tom.

  1–Henry Ware Eliot; the other family members referred to are Marion, the fourth child and TSE’s favourite sister; Charlotte, the third child; Margaret, the second child; and Henry, the fifth child and TSE’s only brother, who was nine years his senior. See Glossary of Names.

  2–From 1896 the family spent their summers in the house built by Henry Ware Eliot on land originally purchased in 1890 at Eastern Point, overlooking Gloucester Harbor. On earlier visits they had stayed at the Hawthorne Inn.

  3–When ceremonies are held in schools or colleges to mark the graduation of the senior class.