The Letters of T. S. Eliot, Volume 1: 1898-1922 by T. S. Eliot Read Free Book Online

conditions. 2
Very cordially yours
C. C. Eliot
    FROM H. W. Eliot to E. H. Wells 3
     
    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.
     

    TO His Mother 1
     
    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. 
     
    FROM His Mother
     
    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 wouldnot 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