The Letters of T. S. Eliot, Volume 1: 1898-1922 (36 page)

1–‘Reflections on Vers Libre’, NS 8 (3 Mar. 1917), 518–19.

2–TSE’s sister Charlotte and her husband George Smith had two daughters, Theodora and Charlotte (Chardy). 

MS
Houghton

8 March 1917

18 Crawford Mansions

Dear Mrs Eliot,

At last I am replying to your two nice letters of Jan. 30 and 31. I am so glad you understand the sort of brain that needs a great amount of sleep – you say my temperament must be like your own, and I believe it is. I worry a great deal, and my brain is always restless and active. Often when I lie down to sleep I feel that a wheel is going round in my head, and although my body is dead tired my brain gets more and more excited.

We are not sleeping quite so much now – but I still am doing about eight or nine hours – but my migraines are coming back and I dont feel nearly so well. Tom sleeps about seven or eight hours – he did not get over that influenza for
weeks
– in fact, I can say that it is only for the last five or six
days
that he has seemed like himself. Up till then he was most gloomy and depressed and very irritable and I knew he felt that life was simply not worth going on with. It is hard
not
to feel that here, when every day the strain and difficulty is a
little
increased, and the screw turned a little tighter. First it is one thing, then another. Now we are threatened with ‘
no
papers’
¹
(from Tom! if that comes it will just ruin all literary men)
and there are no
– perhaps I had better not continue this subject.

Tom did
not
get a new suit,
or
new flannels. I am ashamed to say it. His old underwear is still thick and in
fair
condition however, but it needs
incessant darning
. Darning alone takes me hours out of the week. He needs a suit, and I think
must
have one. His pyjamas too are all very old and want constant mending. I often wish we were in America, there are very heavy storms yet in front of us – and we are a bit worn down by all that has been already.

With love to you and Mr Eliot. Affectly
Vivien

N.B. New postal address is – 18 Crawford Mansions Crawford Street. London.
W.1

I
would
get Tom some new vests myself but I really
do
think the old ones are quite good for the rest of this winter – and he is wearing his flannel shirts all the time –
under protest!

1–On 23 Feb.,
The Times
reported that, in response to paper shortages, the government was considering restricting halfpenny newspapers to four pages, and penny newspapers to eight. 

MS
McMaster

13 March 1917

[London]

Dear Bertie,

Thank you for reading my article
¹
and returning it so promptly. I think that what you say about it is probably correct, and I am so keenly aware of its deficiencies that I shall probably keep it in my drawer for a year or two. The questions involved are so difficult that it seems impossible under present conditions to treat them adequately, and I have no desire to do either your point of view or my own an injustice. One’s philosophy is bound to be based on temperament, but it certainly ought to be ‘reasoned’ as well, and my article is I feel too scattered and incoherent.

I made no positive objection to the principle of ‘reverence’
²
– it merely seems to me inadequate. My chief objection is to the passage on p. 165.
³

Aff.
T. S. E.

1–Evidently TSE had written a critique of BR’s
Principles of Social Reconstruction
(1917), though neither the article nor BR’s response has been found.

2–BR, in his chapter on ‘Education’ (
Principles of Social Reconstruction
, 146), argued: ‘A man who is to educate really well, and is to make the young grow and develop into their full stature, must be filled through and through with the spirit of reverence.’ However, he declared too, ‘It is not in a spirit of reverence that education is conducted by States and Chambers and the great institutions that are subservient to them’ (148).

3–‘It will be said that the joy of mental adventure must be rare, that there are few who can appreciate it, and that ordinary education can take no account of so aristocratic a good. I do not believe this. The joy of mental adventure is far commoner in the young than in grown men and women. Among children it is very common, and grows naturally out of the period of make-believe and fancy. It is rare in later life because everything is done to kill it during education. Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth – more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible; thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. It sees man, a feeble speck, surrounded by unfathomable depths of silence; [overleaf] yet it bears itself proudly, as unmoved as if it were lord of the universe. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.’ 

MS
McMaster

Thursday [15? March 1917]

18 Crawford Mansions

Dear Bertie,

Thanks for your letter, which was very good of you. Nevertheless, I feel that the article is not satisfactory to me. I feel that I have put either too 
much or too little into it. I should prefer to discuss Authority and Reverence.
¹
I think what I have said is in appearance too negative and perhaps looks obscurantist. I am convinced that there is something beneath Authority in its historical forms which needs to be asserted clearly without reasserting impossible forms of political and religious organisation which have become impossible. But this is a task which needs impulse and hope, and without more peace of mind and contentedness, better nerves and more conviction in regard to my future, I do not feel capable of satisfying myself.

Yours aff.
Tom

1–For Russell on Authority, see
Principles
, 27, 33ff, 167ff; for Reverence, 146, 227.

MS
Houghton

21 March 1917

18 Crawford Mansions,
Crawford St,
W.1
Note
W.1

My dearest mother,

You will not have heard from me for some time, so I hope this will arrive quickly. You know that I have spent a large part of my time hunting for work to stop the gap, and I can assure you that nothing takes more time. Now I have found it, and I am in much better spirits than I have been for some time past. A friend of the Haigh-Woods is a very successful banker,
¹
and he gave me an introduction to Lloyds Bank, one of the biggest banks in London. I am now earning £2 10s a week for sitting in an office from 9.15 to 5 with an hour for lunch, and tea served in the office.
²
This of course is not a princely salary, but there are good prospects of a rise as I become more useful. Perhaps it will surprise you to hear that I enjoy the work. It is not nearly so fatiguing as schoolteaching, and is more interesting. I have a desk and a filing cabinet in a small room with another man. The filing cabinet is my province, for it contains balance sheets of all the foreign banks with which Lloyds does business. These balances I file and tabulate in such a way as to show the progress or decline of every bank from year to year. The work had lapsed for some time, and I am filling in last year’s balances; when that is completed, I should be able to 
draft a little report on any bank when needed. French and Italian I find useful, and shall have to pick up a little Spanish, Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian as well. The work is very interesting to me, and also, when 5 o’clock comes it is over, and I can think about my writing for Jourdain, or the
New Statesman
, or my class, with a free mind.

Of course there is no engagement to give more than a week’s notice so the place is not a trap. I hope for more evening work next winter. My article in the
New Statesman
was a great success, and I shall probably be able to get articles in very often. That is the best thing possible for me, as it will get my name known. Squire (the editor of the
New Statesman
)
³
urged me to begin at once writing articles for American periodicals, and offered me an introduction to the
Century
and the
Dial
. Russell could introduce me to the
Atlantic
[
Monthly
]. I shall be rather busy for Jourdain too, as he has decided to increase the reviewing on the
Monist
, and as it is difficult now to get competent people to review technical books for a technical paper, we are to do almost all of it between us – I to do philosophy, theology, biology and anthropology.

It is a great satisfaction to me to have regular work, and I can do my own work much the better for it. Even when circumstances stand in my way as they do at present, I should not feel that I was doing all I could if I did only what writing and lecturing there is to be done. Besides, Vivien is very anxious to give up her charwoman as soon as the weather is a little warmer, and I insist that she must not. She has not got over the laryngitis yet by any means; the work would take all her time and the strength which should go to building up; and I am afraid she cannot have as good a holiday as last summer. I want her to go away in July and August, as I think she can get another girl to accompany her. I might be able to get a short vacation, but I think we could live almost as cheaply, she in the country I here, during the hottest period, as we do now. Besides, for the present, I do not feel comfortable for her never to have anyone in the flat while I am out all day. Of course, when I think of all the clothes she needs – she has not had any for a long time, and I have my new suit – I see advantages in giving up the woman, but I do not like it.

The war must end sometime. Do write me about the health and activities of all the family. I have not had a letter from Henry for a long time. I hope he will find his present post good enough to keep, as I feel that it is not good to move about so much.
⁴

I think of you and wonder what you are doing very often.

Always your devoted son
Tom

1–E. L. Thomas was Chief General Manager of the National Provincial Bank.

2–TSE began work on 19 Mar. in the Colonial and Foreign Department, ‘at £120 a year and no food … on the false pretence of being a linguist’ (Harvard College Class of 1910, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report, 219).

3–See TSE’s letter to him of 29 Mar.

4–HWE was a partner in the Chicago advertising agency Husband & Thomas (later the Buchen Company), 1917–29. 

MS
Houghton

21 March 1917

18 Crawford Mansions, 
Crawford St,
W.1
Note
.
W.
1

My dear Charlotte,

We were delighted to get the pictures from you, and still more when two more came from Henry, for the little head of Chardy is by far the best of the lot. Vivien is going to have it passe-partout’d. All of the pictures of Chardy are good. Theodora does not ‘take’ so easily, and the picture of her as Tunisienne does not do her justice – though it looks extraordinarily like Marion. It was jolly to see the Christmas party, too. I get the impression that Theodora is extremely tall, already, and probably will be tall. I should like to have helped bring in the greens.

As you say, political topics are barred in letters: it is a great annoyance to me, as I am violently interested in the subject at present. However, one can ‘lay down’ bottles to be opened when the vintage has ripened. I quite believe that you do not find much intelligent discussion among your friends or our relations. The war has at least brought
variety
into our lives. I am at present combining the activities of journalist, lecturer, and financier. During the daytime I am now employed at Lloyds Bank as a stop-gap. Lloyds is one of the banks with largest foreign connections, and I am busy tabulating balance-sheets of foreign banks to see how they are prospering. My ideal is to know the assets and liabilities (of every bank abroad that Lloyds deals with) for ten years past! You will be surprised to hear of me in this capacity, but I enjoy it. Incidentally, I shall pick up scraps of the Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian languages. Russians, fortunately, manage to produce their reports in English or French. Anything to do with money – especially foreign money – is fascinating, and I hope to learn a little about finance while I am there.

This engagement, of course, is due to the fact that under war conditions it is impossible to make an all-the-year-round living by writing and lecturing. I hope to have more lecturing next winter. My literature (working people’s) class has been a great success, and I am enthusiastic about the work. These people, who meet once a week for my lecture and discussion, and write papers, are very anxious to improve themselves,
though there is not the slightest chance of its helping them to make a better living. In America there would, I think, be less chance for this sort of class. Education is so diffused, and it is so easy for almost anyone to get a socalled ‘college education’, that education is less prized. A young man who will work himself to death to ‘go through college’ usually works himself to death making money afterwards. The idea of people studying all their lives is unknown, as also among the more prosperous classes in England. But my class is entirely
disinterested
in its devotion to study and thought.

I really ought not to write any more. I have several letters to write, and a pile of books to review for the
Monist
, and I ought to write an article for the
New Statesman
.

Vivien sends you her love, and adds her thanks for the pictures. She has continued to suffer from her larynx – you know she had a bad attack of laryngitis some weeks ago, and her voice is very weak. The protracted cold weather has made matters more difficult. She is very anxious to do without the charwoman when the weather is warmer, but I am sure that would be unwise. What she needs is another summer at the seaside.

With much love to you all from both of us

Your affectionate brother,
Tom