The Letters of T. S. Eliot by T. S. Eliot & Hugh Haughton

Author:T. S. Eliot & Hugh Haughton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2011-03-16T16:00:00+00:00

1921

Dear Scofield,

Wishing you all the compliments of the season:

I have your letter of the 11th and your letter of the 15th ultimo, and thank you, first, for your amiability and mansuetude in not reproaching me for the ‘London Letter’. Had I been able to do any writing in the past two months, this would have taken precedence over everything else; and for the present and future it will, as I intend to get it done in the course of the coming week. The fact that Vivien’s father has been at the point of death for ten weeks has interfered with every plan that has or could have been made; and a number of difficulties, partly issuing therefrom and partly quite independent, have further embarrassed my activity to a point unknown even in the last five years.

I hope to post you this ‘London Letter’ in a week.

Now for the other matter. I have turned over in my mind what there is to be done, with a view to seeing what part of it I could compass; for I think it would be quite obvious to you if you were here that the job itself is wholly beyond my powers. I am very desirous that it should be done, but for me it is physically impossible. For one thing, you need a man who can get about, call on merchants and printers etc. and also lunch with the valuable people. As I have to be at an office six days a week, and my hours are 9.30 to 5, you see it is impossible for me to do anything during the day; and for seeing friends and acquaintances, doing my personal business, writing letters, accounts, and finally my reading and writing, I have to divide my evenings and my Sundays among these as best I can. You certainly need a man who can devote a good half of his time for several weeks, merely to obtain the preliminary information; and it is true that the most of this can only be done by personal interviews. If you like, until you can send or find here someone else, I will try to see Mr Ratcliffe; but if I promised to try to do what you need I should simply delay you indefinitely.

Offhand, I can only say that I know the cost of paper and labour to have increased enormously here since five years; I cannot say how it compares, taking into account the rate of exchange, with costs in America. The papers here at all comparable to the Dial sell at higher prices; the London Mercury, for example, is now 3s, and has no illustrations; but perhaps all these papers aim at a larger profit per copy than the Dial does.

Then as to the possibility of working up a subscription list in England. This, I think, will take considerable time. Undoubtedly Americans can make better magazines than the English can, but it takes time to persuade the English, as the fact must be made softly to penetrate their unconsciousness.

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