The Letters of T. S. Eliot, Volume 1: 1898-1922 (47 page)

1–The poetry reading was held by Sibyl Colefax (1874–1950) at her house in Onslow Square on 12 Dec. The poets included the Sitwells, AH and Robert Nichols. Osbert Sitwell (who met TSE for the first time only on 11 Dec.) recorded: ‘When Eliot arrived a few minutes late, he was rebuked publicly by Sir Edmund Gosse (though in fact the young man had come straight from the bank where he was then working) … [H]e showed no trace of annoyance at being reproved: for … he never allowed his companions to suspect the fatigue he must have been suffering.’ Sitwell saw TSE as ‘a most striking being, having peculiarly luminous, light yellow, more than tawny eyes: the eyes, they might have been, of one of the greater cats’ (
Laughter in the Next Room
[1949], 32–3).

2–Edmund Gosse (1849–1928), man of letters, author of
Father and Son
(1907); from 1904 librarian of the House of Lords.

3–‘The best thing for me was “Hippopotamus”,’ noted Arnold Bennett in his Journal.

4–Hazel Martyn of Chicago was a widow when in 1910 she married the painter John Lavery (1856–1941).

5–His brother-in-law George Lawrence Smith had volunteered for active service (though in fact he was assigned to assist engineers Stone & Webster at the US Army base in nearby South Boston).

MS
Houghton

23 December 1917

18 Crawford Mansions

My dear Father

Thank you very much for the £10 which arrived Saturday via the Midland Bank. It came at a very useful time, as I shall not be paid my rise until I get my January salary at the end of that month. I shall be paid for the first part of my lecture courses then too.

For the next two or three weeks I shall have a much desired respite from lecturing, and an opportunity to catch up a little on some of my writing. The lectures do take a great deal of time, and it seems really a Christmas holiday not to be doing them, though the only holiday I get from the Bank is Christmas Day and the day after. I wish I had longer, so we could go into the country out of the nervous strain for a few days. Vivien will not go without me, and she only went for that two weeks in the autumn at my earnest solicitation. Of course the excellent servant we have makes it quite possible, as she is so efficient, and likes responsibility, but Vivien will not go.

I suppose this will be a sad Christmas for you too, but I hope you will have Henry with you.

It seems strange that I should have so busy a life and so little to tell about it. But I think that it is just because it is so busy and rushed that there is so little; – because I don’t have time, and no one has time, to stop and enjoy life and tell about it. Besides, everyone’s individual
fortunes
lives are so swallowed up in the one great tragedy, that one almost ceases to have personal experiences or emotions, and such as one has seem so unimportant! – where before it would have seemed interesting even to tell about a lunch of bread and cheese. It’s only very dull people who feel they have ‘more in their lives’ now – other people have too much. I have a lot of things to write about if the time ever comes when people will attend to them.

But I think about you very much.

Your loving son
Tom.

I should like American papers.

MS
Houghton

30 December 1917

18 Crawford Mansions

My dearest Mother,

The first letters came yesterday that we have had for a long time: none from you, but one from father and one from Henry. We had our envelopes 
on Christmas day, in stockings as usual, and thanked you again. I have deposited mine, but will of course spend it on clothing: I have not yet decided what clothing I need most. Another nice present arrived – Henry’s portfolio. I had no idea that all these pictures existed; some of them I did not remember having seen before; some I remembered quite well. The only member of the family I missed was the
Elsa
, and I should have liked some views of Gloucester. I was very glad to have those of you and father at the Westminster breakfast table,
¹
and there was a very good one of Henry there too which I had never seen. I like especially one of you writing at your desk in your bedroom.
²
It gives one a strange feeling that Time is not before and after, but all at once, present and future and all the periods of the past,
³
an album like this. I have been showing the pictures with great pride.

Our Christmas was very quiet but unexpectedly pleasant. The Haigh-Woods had two letters from Maurice that morning, the first in several weeks. He is in Italy now, on the Staff, and I expect is having a very exciting time. He did awfully well to get this post, having passed some examinations with very high rank; and we are very proud of him. He ought to be a Captain before long.

The weather has been very bad, windy and cold; needless to say we prefer it so; but we both have bad coughs and use quantities of handkerchiefs; and the winter in England seems very long. You never know when it is over; finally June comes and you decide to call it summer.

I hope you have a servant now. They are no longer easy to get in England and must be still more difficult to get in America – I hate to think of your having to do your own work.

Tomorrow night is New Year’s Eve. I hope you will be thinking of us then, as we shall be thinking of you, and hoping that this may be better for all of us than the last.

Your devoted son
Tom.

Vivien is anxious to write, but has not had time by this mail.

1–Their St Louis address was 4446 Westminster Place.

2–See Plates 19A and 23.

3–‘Time present and time past / Are both perhaps present in time future / And time future
contained in time past’ (
Burnt Norton
1–3).

MS
Houghton

30 December 1917

18 Crawford Mansions

My dear Henry,

This will be a poor sort of letter, as it is very late, and I have a bad cold, and ought to be in bed. Your portfolio arrived several days before Christmas, but of course I did not open it until the day itself. It has given me a lot of pleasure, some of it of a pathetic (but pleasant) sort, and I have enjoyed showing it to people. I am always glad to think it is there, too, as it makes me feel that I have something of the people and the places over here. And it is certainly beautifully done.

Your cheque arrived yesterday. I can only repeat how very generous and good you are. Half shall be spent on Vivien and half on me – mostly on clothes I fancy, which are of course expensive now, and on comforts which one has learned to regard as luxuries nowadays. I am rather better off now than I have been; my rise to £200 a year is of the first of January, and I am promised something more in the middle of the year. The manager has undoubtedly pushed me on fast. The work is interesting, though occasionally trying.

We are neither of us very well at present – colds and coughs – weather bad, and we have reason to be glad when it is.

I should have been delighted personally if you could have got a chance to come over, and had been secretly hoping to see you; but you would certainly have cracked up with your constitution and ears. I think to stay at home and have to go through all the popular silliness there must be very trying. Somehow I have not felt since last March that I ever wanted to see America again. Certainly at the present time I think I should feel like an adult among children. Probably I shall get over this dread in time.

I must go to bed soon. I will send you a copy of the
Egoist
– I take a good deal of interest in the paper.

With much love from both of us

Affectionately
Tom.

MS
Houghton

31 December 1917

18 Crawford Mansions

Dear Eleanor,

This is just a scrawl at the end of the year to thank you for your last letter of I don’t know how long ago! and to recall myself to you, and to combine Christmas and New Year’s wishes. I cannot tell you how pleased I was to hear of the success of your play.
¹
You deserve it. I wish you would send me one of the printed copies – if there are any – and I should tell you just what I think of it. Of course it is the branch of literature which I know least about.

I will send you a copy of the Henry James number of the
Egoist
²
when it appears. The idea is mine, and I have a great admiration for him. Not so much the later stuff, but read
The Europeans
and
The American
, and
Washington Square
, and
Daisy Miller
. The first especially is a wonderful criticism of New England. I have been reading Turgenev with great delight – he is one of the very greatest.
³
While you are about it, you ought to read Stendhal –
Le Rouge et le Noir
, and
La Chartreuse de Parme
.

I suppose most of our friends are playing tin soldiers now. The breezes whisper to me that I should not enjoy America at the present moment. But I wish it were all over and you could come and have a winter in London. We shall manage to make it worth your while, even in post-war conditions.

With love and best wishes to you and Aunt Susie.

Affectionately
Tom.

1–
Their Flesh and Blood
, a comedy in four acts, was produced in the 47 Workshop, Dec. 1917.

2–The issue of Jan. 1918 carried TSE’s ‘In Memory of Henry James’: ‘I do not suppose that any one who is not an American can
properly
understand Henry James.’

3–TSE reviewed Edward Garnett,
Turgenev
, with foreword by Joseph Conrad, in
Egoist
4: 11 (Dec. 1917).

TS
Houghton

6 January 1918

18 Crawford Mansions

Dear Mrs Eliot

Thank you very much indeed for the £1 you sent me for Xmas. It was very good of you. I hope you all had a nice Xmas. We had a fairly nice one. We had our Xmas dinner at my home, in the middle of the day, because of air raids! There was no raid as it turned out, but being a full moon it was rather expected. Tom and I went to the country in the late afternoon, and had just two days’ holiday. It was nice. We enjoyed looking at Henry’s photographs. It was a very nice present for Tomto get, and pleased him immensely. It was good of Henry, and must have taken him a long time to do.

We hear from Charlotte that we may be seeing her husband before long. That would be very nice. I hope, if he does get to France, that he will spend his first leave with us. It will be exciting to see one of the family, although I wish it could be a real Eliot. You are naturally upset at his leaving Charlotte to manage the farm, but she appears to want him to go, and it is apparently to his advantage, so I suppose she will prefer it that way. He will not be running any particular risk if his job is what she says. In one of your letters you seemed to be under the impression that I was away in the country for a very long time in the autumn. I only went for a fortnight, and Tom came for both weekends. When he gets away in the country for his weekends, his health is good. When he stays for a long unbroken period in town, it is not. I am therefore trying to get him away as often as possible. Life in London, at the present time, is much more than trying. About the work in the Government office which I tried for, you will have received Tom’s letter in which he told you why I was rejected. Although I have never been to America I am, by law, an ‘American born’ citizen – and therefore not eligible. The work I now intend to do is tilling the soil, and raising the ‘natural fruits of the earth.’

Hoping that you and Mr Eliot are both well, and with our very best wishes that you may have a happy and healthy New Year,

Affectionately,
Vivien

MS
Mugar

10 January 1918

18 Crawford Mansions

I am very glad you can both come. I imagine that the colds will be universal, so you will find sympathetic company. I find however that I should have said
2.15 not
2, as I may not be home much before that. I hope you don’t mind it so late. Accept my apologies for the error.

[unsigned]