The Letters of T. S. Eliot, Volume 1: 1898-1922 (72 page)

1–Boni & Liveright, New York publishers, founded in 1917.

2–Max Eastman,
The Ballad of Joseph the Nazarene by ‘Williams’ and A Sermon on Reverence
(1916).

MS
Houghton

3 September 1919

18 Crawford Mansions,
Crawford St,
W.1

My dearest Mother,

I got back from France on Sunday night.
¹
I did not write you any letters while I was there, but I knew you would understand why I did not: I wrote only cards to Vivien, and did not read at all.
²
I enjoyed my holiday thoroughly, and feel (and look) very well indeed, so you need not be worrying about me. I think I made the most of my time.

I had very little difficulty in getting a passport, and left at 5 p.m. on a Saturday, getting to Havre at 8 the next morning. There the passport stamping took so long that everyone missed the train. By attaching myself to a French couple I found that I could get a train from Trouville, a seaside resort nearby, which might get me to Paris in time to catch the night train for Périgueux. So we boarded the small steamer and proceeded along the coast for an hour’s journey on a blazing bright August day, the boat crowded with people going to the races, and men with violins and singers passing their hats. It was all so French and so sudden that I was dazed by it. Trouville is a very expensive and famous resort, a long beach with villas and casinos and big motor cars, and I was not surprised to have to pay 11 francs for a very good lunch. I loafed about till 4.30, and got to Paris at 8.15. My train left there at 9 from a different station, but I dashed through
the Place de la Concorde in a taxi, and just caught it. The taxi-driver was a very polite person – I was counting out the money slowly, having lost my familiarity with the coinage, and he said ‘That’s enough’ indicating a small tip. So I gave him a bit more, and said ‘That’s because I have not been in Paris for eight years’; he roared with amusement, and waved to me as he drove off. I looked out of the window most of the way, being too excited to sleep. At 4 we reached Limoges, where I waited an hour for my train. I got into a carriage which had been German, and found myself in the company of two young soldiers on leave, who played the accordion the whole way, looking at me for approval and swaying in unison. It began to be light, and I could see the beautiful landscape of Périgord, hilly and wooded, very different from Northern France. You feel at once that you are in a different country, more exciting, very southern, more like Italy. The South of France is as different from the North as the South and North of England. Finally, at 7.30 in the morning I reached Périgueux very hungry, where I last was in January 1911. And there Pound met me at the station. I spent part of my vacation with him in the village of Excideuil, and part on walking trips alone.

_____________________

I am going to continue this account in my next letter; if I tried to tell it all at once I should omit parts. Thank you very much indeed for the $50; it helps very much on the expenses. I found Henry’s letter at the bank, and yours came yesterday.

Then your cable, which came when I was away. It was very sweet and kind of you, but I am
really
very well and strong now. My holiday did wonders for me. It was a complete change. I shall take care (V. says she will take care) that I don’t lose the benefits of it by overwork. I shall not lecture this winter, but will write for the
Athenaeum
instead. I shall not lecture unless the cost of living keeps on advancing – it is difficult in these days to be certain of anything far ahead.

I found Vivien in bed with a serious attack of bronchitis. As her family were in the country she has no one to look after her but our servant, who leaves at 8 in the evening, so that she was always alone at night. She had concealed her illness from me in writing, so as not to diminish my pleasure in the trip. I should like her to go to the seaside for a few days when she gets better, as she has still a nasty cough and is very pale.
³

I have a great deal to write about and reply to, but must postpone it till Sunday.

Always your loving son
Tom.

1–VHE’s diary, 31 Aug.: ‘Still in bed. Tom came home. Arrived punctually. Sent Molly to meet him. Has begun to grow a beard. Very nice at first, depressed in evening.’

2–VHE had written to MH, 31 Aug.: ‘France really has swallowed Tom up. He promised his doctor neither to read nor to write a word while he was away, and he is certainly obeying him!’

3–Three days later, VHE wrote in her diary (6 Sept.): ‘Frightful day of misery. Felt very ill, packed all morning, left for Bosham at 3.40 with Tom. Perfect weather.’

MS
Houghton

9 September 1919

[London]

My dearest Mother,

I am just writing a line by this mail as I have so much to do, and will continue my letter about France on Sunday.

Our new department
¹
is installed, if not exactly started. I have a table at a big front south window looking over the square toward the Mansion House, in a fine impressive room. I believe I shall have a French typist for foreign correspondence.

When I get settled, and have proved my efficiency in the new work, I intend to get leave, within the next six months, and fly over to see you if only for a few days. I may not be able to give you notice, but I shall expect to bring you back with me.

Always your devoted
Tom.

1–The Information Department at Lloyds Bank.

MS
UCLA

10 September 1919

18 Crawford Mansions

[Dear Squi]re,
¹

[I] have been walking in France, and [your] letter, after being forwarded from Marlow, [came] for me here. I should like to see you [and to hear] about the
Mercury
²
and its scope, and [I shall] probably come in after tea one day next [week and hope you] are there. I am trying now [to restrict my] periodical writing to one or [two reviews] in order to get material for a [bo]ok, and so I don’t know whether I could [f]it you or not. But I should like to talk to you.

Sincerely
T. S. Eliot.

1–The left side of the letter is badly torn; bracketed readings are conjectural.

2–Squire’s
London Mercury
first appeared in Nov. 1919. TSE never wrote for it.

MS
Beinecke

Friday [12? September 1919]

[London]

What else was to be expected? I will come in tomorrow (Sat.) p.m. at 8.45 to refresh you for a few moments with the sight of my beard.
¹
If you are out,
n’importe
[no matter].

T.

1–See RA’s account of his anxiety about the possible effect of TSE’s beard on Bruce Richmond, editor of the
TLS
, at their first meeting, when TSE arrived wearing ‘a derby hat and an Uncle Sam beard’: ‘he looked perfectly awful, like one of those comic-strip caricatures of Southern hicks’ (
Life for Life’s Sake: A Book of Reminiscences
[1941], 269). For Richmond, see Glossary of Names.

MS
Houghton

14 September 1919

18 Crawford Mansions

My dear Henry

I am ashamed of not having written sooner after my return. On finding your two letters with the two cheques. I do think it is munificent of you. I have put the money in deposit account, and it will at least be as safe with me as with you, as I don’t intend to spend it. When I have more money I shall of course invest, but at present I feel safe with it in a tangible form.

I had a very delightful trip and feel in much better health for it. I have written some account of part of it in one letter to mother, and shall continue it in my next, and you will doubtless see these letters. France was certain to set me up. The relief of getting into another country after five years in one spot, and being able to speak another language, is a great stimulus and tonic. I should like to get to Italy next year, but I am not sure that I can manage. I wrote to mother that I should try to come over for a short visit as early next year as possible, and to do this I may have to forgo my summer holiday; though what I should offer to the bank would be to take three weeks or a month
without salary.
I don’t think the visit to America will be exactly a rest. If mother would come over here in the spring I should defer coming to America till the following year; but if she doesn’t, I shall nevertheless expect to bring her back to England with me, which would give us quite a long period together. What I am convinced of is that by coming here she would have the chance to rest that she badly needs. I fear that she has done far too much this summer, and that there is no one about her who knows how to check her. I hope I shall be kept better posted about her than I was about father.

I have been very busy since I got back. Vivien had a very bad attack of bronchitis while I was away which kept her still in bed for a week after I returned. Then Murry (the editor of the
Athenaeum
) had to take his wife who is consumptive to the Riviera, and asked me to do as much as I could in writing during the month he is gone. So I have just done two long articles, one on Swinburne and the Elizabethan drama and one on
Hamlet
.
¹
In the spring I expect to collect my essays into two volumes, one containing essays on criticism and poetry, which the
Egoist
will publish, and in which I mean to put everything I have written about the writing of poetry. The other will be Studies in Renaissance Literature and will be an adaptation of essays in the
Athenaeum
, and this a man named
Cobden
-Sanderson
²
wants. I shall also have a new edition of poems up to date, and I just hear from John Quinn that he has arranged for Knopf in New York to print the American edition at 12%, also in the spring.  

I feel pretty tired now, after a long walk this afternoon with Maurice, and then pursuing
Hamlet
, or I should like to take up your long reply to my long letter. But that will keep. Meanwhile I am glad you have got a pleasant room by yourself, and can I hope at least read undisturbed.  

Always very affectionately,
Tom.  

Henry Adams’s book is more than good. It is unique.

1–‘Swinburne and the Elizabethans’, a review of A. C. Swinburne,
Contemporaries of Shakespeare
, ed. Edmund Gosse and T. J. Wise, A., 19 Sept. 1919; repr. as ‘Swinburne as Critic’ in
SW
. ‘Hamlet and His Problems’, a review of J. M. Robertson,
The Problem of ‘Hamlet’, A.
, 26 Sept. 1919; repr. as ‘Hamlet’ in
SW.

2–Richard Cobden-Sanderson, printer and publisher: see Glossary of Names.

MS
BL  

Sunday [14 September 1919]

18 Crawford Mansions  

My dear Schiff,  

Thank you for your letter. My trip was a complete success: I feel very much better for it. I have been very busy since my return. Murry has had to take his wife to France, and wants me to do as much as I can during his absence.  

I am glad you have found a house you like better, and hope you will find the conditions more favourable to work than the former turned out to be. It is always difficult to know how much of oneself to give to other people.

As you have a good deal of verse, it would be better for me to give you some prose – about the length of the Marivaux. Let me hear from you. Candidly I don’t think that prose ought to be paid at the same rate as verse, unless a very unusual story. I don’t think Pound has been in communication with Lewis, or that Lewis knew what Pound was paid. It is more likely that I told Lewis what I was given for the poems. If this has made matters difficult for you I am sorry, but you will have to decide what Lewis’s contribution is worth.

I trust you intend to get back to London before leaving for Paris.

Always cordially, with best remembrances to your wife,

T. S. Eliot

MS
Beinecke

22 September 1919

18 Crawford Mansions

My dear Mr Jepson,

Thank you indeed for your letter. I hope that this autumn and winter we may occasionally meet, and also that I may again have the pleasure of hearing you speak.

I am inclined to agree with you about the poems, though I think the first is much better than the second.
¹
I shall be very anxious to have your opinion about two that I am working on now, which are quite different. I am also pleased that you like the [Swinburne] article.

The Sheep’s-wool correspondence
²
has afforded me much pleasure, and then [it ended just]
³
when I wanted to join in. I think you may justly consider that your essay was a great success.

The Egoist,
I am sorry to say, is ‘suspended’ after the December issue, and the Company will for an indefinite period concentrate upon publishing books. However, I am very desirous that you should let me have the essays, as I am pretty sure that I could place them more conspicuously, (if you will let me) and incidentally perhaps I might have the pleasure of replying to them. I think
Art & Letters
would do it.
⁴
Will you let me know?

Sincerely yours,
T. S. Eliot