The Letters of T. S. Eliot, Volume 1: 1898-1922 (133 page)

1–Giovanni Papini (1881–1956), journalist, critic, poet and novelist. In early years, a vehement critic of Christianity, he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1920 and wrote a best-selling novel,
Storia di Cristo
(1921;
The Life of Christ
, 1923). Other works included an autobiographical novel,
Un Uomo Finito
(1912;
A
Man
–
Finished
, 1924). In the 1930s he became a supporter of Fascism, which won him conspicuous advancement. He dedicated his
Storia della Letteratura Italiana
(‘History of Italian Literature’, 1937) to ‘
il Duce, friend of poetry and of the poets’.

MS
Beinecke

16 October 1922

The Criterion
, 9 Clarence Gate Gdns

Dear Sanderson,

Thank you for your letter, and for the six copies. The appearance of the paper is all that I could have desired; it is a model. I hope that the appearance and a few favourable notices will double the subscriptions!

Yours ever
T. S. Eliot

MS
BL

Monday [16 October 1922]

The Criterion,
9 Clarence Gate Gdns

Dear Sydney,

Thank you very deeply for your letter. You could not have used words which would have given me more pleasure or have so persuaded me that the poem may possibly communicate something of what it intends. But I cannot expect to find many critics so sympathetic.

Gratefully
Tom.

MS
BL

Monday [16 October 1922]

9 Clarence Gate Gdns

Dear Mr Schiff,

Tom has shown me your letter to him, and I want to thank you on my own account for showing such real and true appreciation of
The Waste 
Land
. Perhaps not even you can imagine with what emotions I saw
The Waste Land
go out into the world. It means to me a great deal of what you have exactly described, and it has become a part of me (or I of it) this last year. It was a terrible thing, somehow, when the time came at last for it to be published. I have been distracted these last two days. Yours is the first word that has reached us, and your letter was unexpectedly moving.

 

I am glad, too, that you like the
Criterion
. It seems to me an achievement, by a man who has only his evenings, tired out by eight hours in the City, and who fills hot water bottles, and makes invalid food for his wretchedly unhealthy wife, in between writing!

I hope I’ll see you both before I go away.

Very much love to Violet
Yrs. ever
Vivien.

TS
Beinecke

18 October 1922

The Criterion
, 9 Clarence Gate Gdns

Dear Cobden-Sanderson,

Here are the names and addresses of two reviews to which a German correspondent has strongly recommended sending review copies:–

1.
Der Neue Merkur,

      Munchen,

           Theresienstrasse, 12,

                  Germany.

2.
Die Neue Rundschau

      Berlin W.,

           Bulowstrasse, 90,

                  Germany.

The copies should be marked ‘For review and exchange’, and I will write to these people later separately. I think it might be well to send a copy in the same manner to:–

Il Convegno,

      Via Canova, 25,

           Milan,

                  Italy,

as I understand it is one of the most intelligent of the Italian Reviews.

I am going away at the end of the week for about a fortnight’s rest. I shall not give out my address as I do not want to be bothered by
correspondence, but I will let you know where I am in order that you may communicate with me if necessary. I hope things are going well both with the
Criterion
and with your private affairs; I sincerely hope that you do not feel as tired as I do.

Yours ever,
T. S. Eliot

This was written last night. I have your letters. I think Lady R’s objections boil down to very little; do not concern yourself but leave it to me. They are mostly points for which I was responsible and which I have not changed my mind about. I shall write as soon as she replies to my letter.

TS
Texas

18 October 1922

The Criterion
, 9 Clarence Gate Gdns

Dear Flint,

I have had to devote all my attention up to the present date to the labour of getting out the first number; so that it has been quite impossible for me even to think about what to do with Gómez.
¹
When I come back I will send you back the papers and discuss with you what is to be done. I hope that we can meet and talk things over.

Yours sincerely,
T. S. Eliot

1–Ramón Gómez de la Serna, ‘From “The New Museum”’, was eventually published in C. 1: 2 (Jan. 1923), 196–201.

TS
Lilly

22 October 1922

9 Clarence Gate Gdns

My dear Ezra,

I am glad to receive your expression of approbation of the first number. Of course I should be delighted to have a few poems of Yeats, but so far I have had to go on the principle of asking people whom for one reason or another I felt pretty sure of getting, and as Yeats does not particularly like me, I believe, there appeared no reason why he should consent if I wrote to him direct. Could you do anything in the matter? About Heuffer [
sic
] I have already explained to you my difficulties. I certainly do not want him for several numbers yet because there are a great many other people beside myself who do not like him: the difficulty, if I asked him, would be to get
some of his really best work but not simply his egotistical meanderings about his own services to English literature. If you happen to hear however of his having done anything praiseworthy you might let me know.

I think it is particularly important to reserve the
verse
contributions to the really first-rate people. For that reason I should very much like to get Yeats. There ought of course to be some other less formal periodical in existence which would serve as a kindergarten for meritorious youth but I do not think that the
Criterion
can afford to print verse, for the present at least, except by people who really know their job. Hence my desire to get hold of Yeats. I do not see why we should not arrange later on to print some of your cantos in the same month in which they appear in the
Dial
. That is to say, if the
Dial
would print on the 25th of the month before one of our quarterly numbers it would be all right. first
, and I don’t suppose they insist on
exclusive
?>

You will possibly observe in the list of contributors a few passengers who will have to walk the plank as soon as the ship gets out of sight of land.

Re the Dostoevski. Lady Rothermere has some early Swinburne manuscripts, one of which is quite good. I should like to print it in the next number.
¹
Have you any suspicion as to whether it would be necessary to get the consent of Gosse. Gosse is certainly the last person in England to give me any assistance if he could avoid it.

I presume you have heard from Quinn about the poem. Seldes and Watson have behaved extremely nicely and Quinn has been invaluable. I declined the
Dial’s
proposal when Watson made it to me direct for the reason that I did not want to put Quinn to the slightest further trouble after he had taken so much pains to make out a perfect contract for me with Liveright, so that the matter would never have been carried off unless it had been taken over my head.

Has anything been heard of Proust? I see that the
Nouvelle Revue Française
announce what appears to be a fragment from a new volume, to appear in their monthly magazine.
²
Is this to be available for the
Criterion
?

I am off tomorrow for ten days at the seaside. I feel much too tired for the journey to Paris and simply want to get away to some dull place and ‘have left no addresses’.
³
Will write on my return.

Yours,     
T.

I regret profoundly not seeing you, otherwise I have no particular desire to go to Paris just now.
‘In old Manila harbour, the Yankee wardogs lay,
‘The stars and stripes streamed overhead, & the band began to play;
‘The band struck up the strains of the old Salvation Rag,
And from the
quarter
mizzentop there flew REAR ADMIRAL BARRY’S flag.’
⁴

1–The Swinburne MSS did not appear in
C
.

2–Marcel Proust, ‘La Regarder Dormir’,
NRF
19 (Nov. 1922), 513–22.

3–
The Waste Land,
l. 181.

4–Rear Admiral Edward B. Barry (1849–1938) became commander of the US Pacific Fleet, 2nd Division, in 1899. His flagship, the USS
West Virginia
, docked in Manila Harbour in Oct.–Nov. 1909. He was forced to resign after forty-five years’ service in 1911, following an alleged liaison with a cabin boy. EP had suggested printing TSE’s verses about King Bolo, and wrote to him on 29 Aug.: ‘your admirer [John Peale] Bishop thinks of collecting Bawdy Ballads, of War and Peace. (the real folk litterchure, including “She Was Pore but she wuz honest” and others that ought n’t be left longer to the incertitudes of verbal tradition[)].’ 

MS
Texas

[late 1922?]

Mary,

I have been thinking about our talk, and sounding Tom a little. I see now that if a small sum was, unconditionally, offered to him by the fund, and
guaranteed
, and if the
Criterion
then became a success
or showed that it would ultimately become
a success, Tom would automatically leave the Bank.

I am sure of this. But I think that any forcing or pressure to
make
him leave the Bank at
this point
would be very tactless, and bad policy.

So much depends on the
Criterion
.

As to the other question of the Left and Right – in my case I think I could, by a bold stroke, combine their forces. In this way – the Right, being in the ascendent, tolerates the Left, and recognises its
usefulness
. The Left admires and reveres the Right with its whole heart. Why not therefore, later, start a communal life with the Right and the Left, and perhaps a George, or even an adopted child – all together?

T. wants
very much
to ask Lytton but does not think Lytton would be at
all
likely to consent to write for the
Criterion
. But he will ask him I hope.

All this is
private
.

If you give me away on any point, I will
never
speak to you again, of course.

[Unsigned]

MS
Texas

1 November 1922

9 Clarence Gate Gdns

Mon cher Jean-Aubry

Je viens de rentrer – je trouve votre aimable lettre, mais je reviens trop tard pour paraître chez Lady Colefax.
²
Voulez-vous dire à Valéry que je suis navré, c’est un
grand chagrin
de ne pas le voir – je le chercherai à Paris au printemps. Dites aussi que Charles Whibley
³
(à Jesus College, Cambridge) aurait voulu le voir aussi. Si j’avais pu venir à Londres, j’aurais eu le dessin de donner un petit déjeuner – vous, Valéry, Whibley, et moi. Rendez à Valéry mes regrets et mes hommages sincères au premier poète de la France.

Merci de l’envoi de l’intéressante pièce suédoise. Envoyez-moi, je vous en prie,
votre adresse,
afin que je puisse vous en parler. Et quand
pouvezvous
me montrer votre Conrad?
⁴
Ça pourrait se découper en 2 morceaux, ou vous pourriez l’abréger un peu, non?

Yours always,
T. S. Eliot

Rappelez moi à Madame Alvar, s’il vous plaît.

Je ferai expédier un numéro du
Criterion
à Valéry.
⁵