The Letters of T. S. Eliot, Volume 1: 1898-1922 (74 page)

1–RA wrote to TSE on 23 Sept., ‘Mr Richmond, the editor of the
Literary Supplement
, has a great admiration for your critical prose and, I think, would be willing to publish a leading article by you, if you cared to write it.’ Bruce Richmond initially feared TSE would find the paper ‘too old-fashioned’ and would consider himself ‘the property of the Athenaeum.’, but RA reassured him: he arranged for the two men to meet at
The Times
on 29 Sept. (
Richard Aldington: An Autobiography in Letters
ed. Norman T. Gates [1992], 53). In a tribute on Richmond’s ninetieth birthday, TSE recalled his first impressions of Richmond: ‘There is still a picture of the scene in my mind: the chief figure a man with a kind of bird-like quality, a bird-like alertness of eye, body and mind. I remember his quickness to put the newcomer at ease; and the suggestion in his mien and movement of an underlying strength of character’ (
TLS
, 13 Jan. 1961, 17).

2–Charlotte C. Eliot, ‘An Appeal to the Reservations’,
Boston Herald
, 27 Aug. 1919.

PC
Typed copy Beinecke
¹

3 October 1919

18 Crawford Mansions

It has just occurred to me that the title ARA VUS PREC
²
would do. For it is non-committal about the newness of the contents, and unintelligible to most people.

Yrs,
T. S. Eliot

1–The original postcard was sold by the Gotham Book Mart, New York, 6 Nov. 1936.

2–‘Now I pray you’,
Purg
. xxvi, 145. Not knowing Provençal, TSE relied on the little Temple Classics edition of Dante which he had carried in his pocket since 1911, and this resulted in the error ‘Vus’ for ‘Vos’. When the mistake was discovered, there was only time to correct the label.

MS
Texas

Friday night [3 October 1919]

Flat [18 Crawford Mansions]

My dear, aren’t you sick of staying in at Wittering? I am awfully disappointed about Sat. night. I hope you will excuse me asking you to bring my trunk. But it is rather miserable to be without everything so long. My Monday’s adventures were as follows. Awakened at 6 a.m. by faithful follower outside window, who said a motor was leaving Chi: at 10.30 – and a seat in it wd. cost 30s. Would I go?
¹
Yes. A thousand yeses – I was so sick and
ill
with Bosham. Packed up in great hurry, bitterly cold, no breakfast. Cab fetched me and took me to Chichester. Three motors all leaving at once, full of men, great excitement. Refused permission to take trunk! Left it in Chichester station cloakrooms. Wired Tom to meet me at Putney Bridge, as the motors refused to take us into London in case of being commandeered. Wild drive to London with elderly gent, with false
teeth. Arrived Putney Bridge. No Tom. No lunch. Waited two hours. Wept. Came home. No Tom. 7 o’cl. Tom arrived surprised to see me. Had been waiting at London Bridge for 3¾ hours. Why? Thought I meant London Bridge altho’ I said Putney. Both wept.

Well now. Surely you are coming on Monday. I hate you being off there, and me here. If you
can
manage to fetch up my trunk I shall feel more than grateful. I think, if you come by train, you may bring as much luggage as you like. I arranged with the man at Chichester that someone might fetch it, and in that case he will give you back the 5/11d I paid for the carriage of it to London, in case it could be sent. If Tom cannot meet you at the time you arrive, I shall be able to. You must not hate Tom, it isn’t fair. But I know you won’t, always. I see I was rather silly in that unfortunate letter I wrote you from Bosham, Dear Mary.

I am having horrible times at the dentist, and that is one of the things I ‘mind’. It is not very nice here. Nothing seems to have begun. One is waiting, waiting for the strike to stop. Just as one waited for the war to stop. But you didn’t, did you? There you are again! And there am I again, but this
is not
a nasty letter.

I want to get clothes, but everything seems so wildly different (fashions, I mean) that I dare not begin. So I have not ordered a single thing. I dont know what will please Jim
²
most either! Directly that horrible Belgian goes to Bermuda you must begin laying foundation stones for me with Jim.

Meanwhile I have no underclothes. Now Mary darling goodnight. Do try to come on Monday. If no train to London you can easily do it now by taking a train to
Brighton
, and then another to London. There are plenty of those I know. You could really have done that today. I hope you are not still unhappy.

Vivien

1–Despite the railway strike.

2–Jim Barnes, MH’s brother.

MS
Houghton

14 October 1919

18 Crawford Mansions

II

– Périgueux is a town that I like. The last time I was there was at Christmas (1910), and arriving early on an intensely hot August morning it seemed more southern than it had before. It is a small old town, the metropolis of that district. It had taken me thirty-six hours to get there, but I felt that I
had left London – the London of four years of war – and reached the South at one instant – suddenly Roman ruins, and tall white houses, and gorgeous southern shrubs, and warm smells of garlic – donkeys – ox carts. There is a particular excitement about arriving at an exciting place after a sleepless night of travel. We went to the hotel which had that musty smell I have only found in France and Italy, and I fell straight asleep on a bed, only waking for lunch. I stuffed myself with the good French food, which is as good and plentiful as ever, but more expensive. Then we sat out in a garden
¹

1–The manuscript breaks off here at the top of the second page.

MS
BL

17 October 1919

18 Crawford Mansions

My dear Schiff,

I was glad to hear from you, as I have just received an extraordinary letter from Osbert Sitwell,
¹
with regard to which I should like to consult you. I am afraid I was very tired the other night, but I have had a great deal to worry me. It is good of you to suggest coming in to see me, and I should be very grateful if we could meet that way, much as I hate to impose upon you. Would Monday evening do, could you come in after dinner?

We are very sorry not to have the pleasure of lunching with you on Sunday, but Vivien must go to Marlow tomorrow, as she is writing to explain; and I am not going because I have something to work at all day which I must finish by Sunday night – so I really must deny myself going out.

I saw the review in the
Times
, but it did not strike me as more unjust than one should expect, and indeed for that sort of thing as good as one expects.
²
Anyway, the
Times
treated me far worse, in 1917, as I can show you!
³

Looking forward to seeing you

Sincerely
T. S. Eliot

1–Sitwell, who was co-editing
Art & Letters
with Frank Rutter, had written to ask if it was true that SS had invited TSE to replace him as second editor.

2–The review adjudged that Stephen Hudson’s
Richard Kurt
‘is like living in a hotel. People come and go through its pages, and leave you with no more than a vague impression that there are too many of them, and that they are unpleasant or uninteresting or both’ (
TLS
, 16 Oct. 1919, 569).

3–The
TLS
review of
Prufrock and Other Observations
had found TSE ‘frequently inarticulate’, and judged that ‘the things which occurred to the mind of Mr. Eliot’ were ‘surely of the very smallest importance to anyone – even himself’ (June 1917).

MS
Valerie Eliot

[19? October 1919]

We
hope
to be able to come to your next party and are glad to hear that you intend to be in London sometime.
There will be so much to talk about
Meanwhile, Schiff has
not
approached me with a view to my taking any position with the paper. But he writes to me that he has had a letter from you, and that he wants to see me
in a day or two
and when we meet the rumour will very likely be discussed.
Meanwhile
I hope you will continue to write
any
and let me know when you hear any lies about me, as I am getting tired of them.
²
If a pogrom would dispose of all the liars I should heartily join you, but I am afraid there would be a few left.
³

Do send me your book as soon as it is out.
⁴

Yrs – ever –

1–Unaddressed and unsigned draft.

2–Sitwell had said he could not help fancying it was SS’s ‘chatterbox of a nephew who starts the rumours’ and ‘spread[s] it about’. He meant (he declared), ‘B – B – B. Beddington B. Behrens’ – Sir Edward Beddington-Behrens (1897–1968), later author of
The International Labour Office (League of Nations): A Survey of Certain Problems of International Administration
(1924).

3–Sitwell wrote (17 Oct.), ‘I suggest we both start a pogrom at Oxford’; and on 18 Oct.: ‘If I meet him, there will be a pogrom; and I hope you will also be very severe; he might be flayed alive.’

4–Sitwell,
Argonaut and Juggernaut
(1919), his first book of poetry.

MS
Valerie Eliot

Monday night [20 October 1919]

18 Crawford Mansions

My dear Schiff,

I want to add this word to say that on reviewing this absurd affair after I said goodnight to you, I am convinced that your nephew had nothing to do with it. I strongly suspect that the rumour was started by a Mrs Hutchinson of whom you may have heard, as an innuendo of hers when several people were present has flashed into my mind. – But so far as you
and I are concerned, the matter is, as you say, of no importance. I want you to know that I appreciate the friendship you show me, and can contrast it with all that is not genuine.

Cordially
T. S. Eliot

MS
Texas

Wednesday [22 Oct? 1919]

[18 Crawford Mansions]

My dear Mary,

I am so sorry and hope it is not a very painful attack, for lumbago can be torture. I am disappointed of course and should have rung you up today about tomorrow evening
¹
had I not got your note. However, I am glad in a way that you will not be there, as it cannot be a good address in the circumstances. I don’t know whether Vivien is better or not; sometimes she seems much better and sometimes worse. I will ring up in a day or two to ask how you are and about Sunday. I shall see you then in any case surely.

Affectionately
Tom.

I have taken your Flaubert lately as my lunch time reading. A nice man, I think. I have enjoyed it.

1–TSE’s lecture ‘Modern Tendencies in Poetry’ was delivered to the Arts League of Service on Tuesday 28 Oct., as VHE’s letter of the 29th confirms, so this may refer to a separate social occasion.

Published 24 October 1919

Sir,

Your correspondents appear to have exhausted their commentary upon the ‘Inaccessible Heritage’.
¹
There is, however, one important branch of the subject which has not, so far as I know, been explored. The heritage does
not include only the books we wish to buy and cannot procure; it includes also the books which we do not wish to buy, but wish to read and cannot reach. The question is whether the British Museum Library ought not to be open to readers in the evening, and on Sunday.

At present the Library can only be used by those whose occupation or lack of occupation permits them to pass their days there. The research of the professional scholar, the curiosity of the affluent, the affliction of the dotard, the idleness of the pauper – these may all be gratified or solaced in the Library; it can also provide a degree of physical warmth for the homeless. But for those who are regularly occupied elsewhere for even six hours of the day, the Library is useless; and among this last class, I believe, are many of those who might most profitably make use of it.

For this class there is one resource, if they can afford it: the London Library. The London Library, for a private library, is surprisingly good; its terms are generous and its manners gracious; but if one wishes to pursue any subject very far, it is, naturally, not inexhaustible. Moreover, there is no need for more than one complete repository of printed matter. The Museum might, as a test, be opened for two nights a week until ten o’clock. Some enlargement of staff would be necessary; if the Museum authorities would inform us of the probable cost of this innovation we should know whether such an expansion of the usefulness of the Library is beyond the means of the nation, which endures expenses of far less general benefit.

I am, Sir,
your obliged obedient servant,
T. S. Eliot