The Letters of T. S. Eliot, Volume 1: 1898-1922 (7 page)

26 July 1905

Eastern Point, Gloucester

My dear Mr Cobb,

I have just learned from your secretary that you are out of town, but will return on the 1st of August. As soon thereafter as is convenient to you, Tom and I will visit Milton Academy, and confer with you. Mr Eliot writes that he approves of his going to Milton rather than Harvard this year, and thinks it will do him good. As soon as I have perfected arrangements with you, I will close matters at Cambridge.

Tom’s certificate will admit him to college next year with only an examination in Physics, and any extra study will be a gain.

We should be happy to have you spend the day with us at Eastern Point, if you care for a fine view.

Yours sincerely,
Charlotte C. Eliot

28 August 1905

Eastern Point, Gloucester

My dear Mr Cobb,

I have been considering with my son-in-law, Mr Alfred Dwight Sheffield,
¹
who has had considerable experience in past years in a Preparatory School, the best course of study for Tom to pursue at Milton Academy this coming year. Mr Sheffield thinks, and I agree with him, that it is better to take studies other than those in which he has passed his examinations. This would exclude Latin, Greek and French, and perhaps English. Attendance at these courses would mean the reading again a second time much that he has already been over. This, Mr Sheffield believes, would induce a mental ennui. It certainly would not act as a stimulus.

Among the elective studies is Advanced History, upon which Tom could spend considerable time. Is this course
always
included in the curriculum, however small the number of students desiring to take it?

There are reasons why it would be better for Tom to take Chemistry at Milton than at Harvard. It would be more interesting and less technical and abstruse. Would it conflict with his Physics?

Physiography Tom does not care for, and I do not consider it worth while for a boy who reads and easily acquires general information.

As to the German, Tom is going through with Mr Bierwirth’s
Thirty Lessons,
²
and recalls much more than I expected – he could easily enter the Third Class were it desirable. German is still an open question.

Mr Sheffield, who is, I think, known to you, has offered to go to Milton on Saturday for an interview concerning Tom’s studies, but I am loath to accept his kind offer as it would shorten his stay here by a day. I should like however, in any case, to visit Milton again and ascertain more definitely what programme of studies can be arranged without conflict; all that I have written is merely preliminary to a final interview.

I should like to ask two practical questions. I desire to know whether a student is allowed to keep his trunk in his room, and if so, should it be of such a height that it can be kept under the bed? Also does an advanced pupil require a ‘swallow tail’ evening suit for any occasion, or are tuxedo suits worn? I inquire because my son has not yet attained his full growth.

Please let me know how long before the opening of the fall term it will be best for me again to confer briefly with you.
³

Very sincerely,
Charlotte C. Eliot

1–Alfred Sheffield (1871–1961), husband of TSE’s eldest sister, Ada. ‘Shef’ taught English for four years at University School, Cleveland, Ohio, before joining the editorial staff of
Webster’s International Dictionary.

2–H. C. Bierwirth,
Beginning German: a series of lessons with an abstract of grammar
(1903). Bierwirth was Professor of German at Harvard.

3–She and TSE saw Mr Cobb on Sat., 16 Sept. The term began on the following Tuesday, with TSE being placed in Forbes House.

17 September 1905

[Eastern Point]

My dear Mr Cobb,

I have purchased Tom a low steamer trunk, and should like very much to have him able to keep it under his bed in his room, unless it is an infringement of rules to which Mrs Chase would object. As there are no closets in the rooms, I think clothes not in immediate use can be best kept from dust etc. in a trunk.

You need not answer this note except to Tom personally.

With kind regards to Mrs Cobb,

Sincerely yours,
C. C. Eliot

[end September 1905]

Hotel Bellevue, Beacon St, Boston

My dear Mr Cobb,

I thought perhaps I had better explain to you just why Tom could not participate in football and other such strenuous sports, involving risk of strain. He has had a case of congenital rupture
¹
which, our physician thinks, is
superficially
healed, but as the abdominal muscles there are weak, care must still be exercised. He participated in the gymnasium training at Smith Academy. I think, however, it would be well for your instructor to know exactly Tom’s physical condition, and presume he examines each new pupil.

Tom has never fully realized until now, when he is almost the only fellow debarred from football, his physical limitations. We hope in a few years he will be entirely normal, but his rapid growth has rendered him less rugged, perhaps, although perfectly healthy. I hope he will soon be over his cold.

I know Tom will be particular about observing all rules.

With kind regards to yourself and Mrs Cobb,

Yours sincerely,
Charlotte C. Eliot

Should Tom ever be ill, which I do not apprehend, I should like to be informed by telegraph.

1–He remembered as a small boy asking his nurse why a naked child in a book was not wearing his truss, which he had assumed all boys wore (Valerie Eliot).

20 May 1906

2635 Locust St [St Louis]

My dear Mr Cobb,

Tom has written home requesting permission to swim in a quarry pond near the Academy. As this authority from parents is a new requirement, it conveys the impression that there is an element of danger, and Mr Eliot and I would like to know the conditions. We both have a prejudice against quarry ponds, partly because Mr Eliot’s sister was drowned in one,
¹
and also because every year the quarry ponds about the city prove fatal to boys bathing in or skating on them. This is partly due to the deep holes in the bottom rock. I suppose Milton boys never attempt diving in one. Mr Eliot says if the pond is stagnant, fed by rains, there is danger of typhoid. If fed by springs, the cold currents must be carefully avoided. Do boys use their own judgement as to the length of time to remain in the water?

A boy may be very careful himself, but the peril of a comrade endangers his rescuers. I have seen quarry ponds surrounded by steep rock that looked dangerous.

Although sorry to trouble you, we do not feel ready to accord Tom the required permission until we are better acquainted with conditions.
²

Very cordially yours
C. C. Eliot

MS
Harvard

7 December 1906

The Hydraulic-Press Brick
Company, Missouri Trust Building,
St Louis

Dear Sir,

I thank you for your letter of the 4th containing information which I already had received from my son, who is sufficiently concerned therefore.
⁴
He did not know that English did not count. I am inclined to think that he has been permitted (with the assistance of his College advisors) to take courses all of which are difficult and require much outside reading. I do not know if this can be remedied. When he comes home for the holidays I will discuss it with him.

Yours truly,
H. W. Eliot

1–Abby Adams Eliot (‘Ada’) had drowned in 1864, aged sixteen, in a skating accident. TSE’s eldest sister was named after her.

2–On the Head Master’s reassurance, permission was given. He added that TSE seemed happier than he had been at first, and was mingling much more with his fellows (23 May).

3–E. H. Wells was Assistant Dean of Harvard College, 1905–7.

4–TSE had been placed on probation at the end of his first semester at Harvard. He later told Valerie Eliot that he ‘loafed’ for the first two years.

PC
Houghton

Tuesday [1909]

Port Clyde, Maine

My dear Mother

We have had very light and very warm weather: pleasant and lazy. This is only about twenty-five miles from North Haven.

Your aff. Son

Tom

1–Addressed to Mrs H. W. Eliot, Eastern Point, Gloucester, Massachusetts. 

MS
Houghton

3 April 1910

4446 Westminster Place,
[St Louis]

My dear Boy,

I was very glad indeed to receive your last letter,
¹
and pleased with the success of your lecture. I am so much interested in every detail of your life, my only regret being that you have not time to write more fully. You have not yet told me your marks in the two remaining courses. Surely you must know by this time. I enclose a postal on which I hope you will write and mail.

I hope in your literary work you will receive early the recognition I strove for and failed. I should so have loved a college course, but was obliged to teach before I was nineteen. I graduated with high rank, ‘a young lady of unusual brilliancy as a scholar’ my old yellow testimonial says, but when I was set to teaching young children, my Trigonometry and Astronomy counted for naught, and I made a dead failure.

Shef
²
wrote early in the fall, that he thought before the end of the collegiate year your ideas would crystallize and you would know better the best direction for your literary activity. I have rather hoped you would
not specialize later on French literature. I suppose you will know better in June what you want to do next year. And you will have the literary judgment of able advisers probably. I cannot bear to think of your being alone in Paris, the very words give me a chill. English speaking countries seem so different from foreign. I do not admire the French nation, and have less confidence in individuals of that race than in English. I suppose I am not enough of a scholar to know what is termed the ‘particular genius’ of any people. I will enclose Henry’s last letter, as you say you have not heard from him for so long. I wish you could live nearer together. But New York is more likely to be your destiny than Chicago.

You must be sure and secure tickets when the time comes for Father and me to hear your Ode.
³
Is it on Class Day, at Sanders? You know Henry had no tickets. Having a part may enable you to secure them. I am glad you know the Littles so well. They must be a fine family. Ed
⁴
was one of the nicest of Henry’s friends. Poor fellow! he was very pathetic in his enfeebled condition.

I suppose you have been too busy to see Marian or Uncle Chris’ family. And also too busy to write for the
Advocate
,
⁵
since you have sent no more copies.

Father will send your draft tomorrow. When is the Easter vacation?

Today has been typically April – showers and sunshine. We have a wood fire in the study. Father has had a little cold. He seems to tire easily. We are hoping Ada will come on in May to the Conference of Charities.
⁶
She thinks she must be at the Hotel several days. I hope then she will stay with us as long as possible – until we go.

I will not enclose the card – Please let me know without.

Your loving Mother

Hope the trip to New Haven will be pleasant. Father thinks before long you can take your deposit from Bank if you are to leave Cambridge.

1–None of TSE’s letters to his parents from Milton Academy, Harvard or Paris has been
preserved. After their mother’s death, TSE told his brother on 25May 1930 that he was ‘glad
to have the letters to make ashes of’.

2–He was about to become an instructor in rhetoric and composition at Wellesley College.

3–As Class Odist, TSE recited his tribute to ‘Fair Harvard’ in Sanders Theater on Graduation Day, 24 June (
Poems Written in Early Youth
).

4–Edward Little (1881–1905), who died of tuberculosis, was co-illustrator with Frederick Hall of
Harvard Celebrities.
His brother Clarence (1888–1971), known as ‘Pete’, was a classmate of TSE.

5–After the ‘Ode’, TSE did not contribute again until 1934.

6–Ada was a member of the Massachusetts State Board of Charities, 1909–14. As a probation officer in New York City’s prison, 1901–4, she had been known as ‘the angel of the Tombs’.

MS
²
Reed College

[St Louis]

12 May 1910

Dear Bob,

The world wags and the end draws nigher.

Laus Deo.

I have not seen your Tom
³
lately but he is well and busy. My Tom is in hospital at Cambridge – probably scarlet fever which is epidemic in Boston. We have so much difficulty in getting information that Lottie goes to Boston tonight. Why don’t folks think more of the feelings of absentees and give them the whole story! It is unfortunate just now as Tom is working so hard for his A.M. which is just in sight.
⁴

Tis a parlous world.

Yr
H