An
extraordinary and tender series of letters from the presiding
genius of 20th century poetry and author of The Waste Land,
T. S. Eliot (U.S.,1888-1965), to his godson, Tom Faber, will
be sold by the Faber publishing family this autumn. Bonhams
will auction the private and largely unpublished correspondence
with inscribed first editions of the poet’s work on Tuesday
20 September at 101 New Bond Street.
Thomas Erle Faber (1927-2004) was T. S. Eliot’s first godchild
and the son of his friend and publisher Geoffrey Faber. He enjoyed
a distinguished career as a physicist, first at Trinity College,
Cambridge, and then for 50 years at Corpus Christi College.
In parallel, he was chairman of the Geoffrey Faber Holding Company
and the only representative of the Faber Family on the board
of Faber and Faber.
Editor of The Faber Book of Letters and Bonhams’ Manuscripts
Consultant, Felix Pryor, says: "This is an utterly wonderful
collection from possibly the greatest poet of the 20th century;
both very moving but enormous fun. For anyone who loves T.S.
Eliot’s poetry the connection with the Faber family and its
publishing house, makes this collection even more exciting."
Having no children of his own, T. S. Eliot indulged the young
Tom Faber with delightfully entertaining illustrated letters
and amusing poems, and over the years adapted his style and
content to ensure that their close relationship survived into
adulthood.
Tom’s widow Dr Elisabeth Faber fondly recalls: "My husband
often referred to the ‘magical times’ they’d spent together
when Tom was growing up. Tom always said that he never thought
of T. S. Eliot as a poet or a scholar. He said that it was the
person that counted. He always thought of him as ‘Uncle Tom’.
"
It is easy to see why. A series of nearly 50 typed letters,
signed "Uncle Tom", or in some cases, "Your fexchite
Uncle Tom", by Eliot to his godson, offer some clues to
their close friendship. The first 11 letters, dating between
1930 and 1936 during the composition of Old Possum’s Book of
Practical Cats, which Eliot dedicated to him, were written with
great affection, especially when his godson faced difficult
decisions: "…you have my sympathy and I hope some
understanding. When I say ‘sympathy’ I mean it literally: I
found myself, at 26, chucking up the results of four or five
years’ preparation, and embarking on a new, precarious way of
life with a very uncongenial and unpromising means of livelihood.
I hope you won’t have to go through anything like that…".
The letters as a whole reveal Eliot at his most genial and
humorous, often giving himself to flights of fancy or facetious
digressions: on subjects, such as, hospital diet ("…
after experiencing all the ways in which Spam can be disguised,
I can declare that there is only one proper way to eat Spam
and that is straight out of the tin…"), American academics
("… I should like to put you in touch with Mr Mandlebaum
of New York, who is writing a thesis on the Dynamics of Audience-Response
to the Cocktail Party. This is call Sociology, and is an American
disease…"), and Chicago ("… apart from Cicero
and the gangsters, Chicago is full of ravening hostesses, professors,
professors’ wives, refugee intellectuals, vice-presidents of
the University, English Speaking Unions, P.E.N. clubs, and every
kind of creature including Julian Huxley. I lecture and the
folk seem easily pleased. I give a ‘seminar’, nobody knows what
about. I read poetry aloud. I go to cocktail parties, dinners
and lunches. It is a terrible life…").
A defining moment in the series is when Eliot introduces the
feline creatures of Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats to the
three-year-old Tom. He writes: "I am glad you have a Cat,
but I do not believe it is So remarkable a cat as My Cat. My
Cat is a Lilliecat Hubvously. What a lilliecat it is. There
never was such a Lilliecat. Its Name is JELLYORUM and its one
Idea is to be Usefull!! For Instance It Straightens The Pictures
– It Does The Grates – Looks Into the Larder To See What’s Needed
– And Into The Dustbin To See That Nothing’s Wasted – And Yet
Is So Lillie And Small That It Can Sit On my Ear (Of course
I had to draw my Ear rather Bigger than it is to get the Liilicat
onto it)."
Just before Tom’s fourth birthday, Eliot sends him a verse
"Invitation to All Pollicle Dogs & Jellicle Cats To
Come To The Birthday Of Thomas Faber", beginning: "Pollicle
Dogs and Jellicle Cats!/ Come from your Kennels & Houses
& Flats…" (this hitherto unpublished poem was
incorporated into the lyrics of the Prologue of Andrew Lloyd-Webber
and Trevor Nunn’s critically acclaimed musical Cats.
The chief glory of these early cat letters is their illustrations,
such as those showing the Jellyorum Cat following in Eliot’s
ludicrous wake, or one showing the plus-foured poet and the
Practical Cat practising country sports.
The series of nearly 50 letters to Tom Faber will be sold together
and are expected to fetch £25,000-30,00.
The Faber Collection to be sold by Bonhams also includes a
silver hunting case pocket watch, given to the 12-year-old T.
S. Eliot for Christmas 1900 and passed on by him to his 13-year-old
godson, Tom. It is estimated at £2,000-3,000.
A presentation first edition of The Waste Land, inscribed by
Eliot: "for Geoffrey C. Faber/from T. S. Eliot/ 7.v.25./
‘siete racommendato il mio tesoro/Nel qual io vivo anchor’"
["But let my Treasure, where I still live on, live in your
memory", Dante, Inferno XV, 119-20], is expected to sell
for £30,000-40,000. One of 460 copies printed by Leonard
and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, 1923, it contains three
autograph ink corrections made by Eliot, and autograph pencil
lineation by Geoffrey Faber.
Around 84 other typed and autograph letters, signed "Tom"
or "Tp" to Eliot’s close friend Enid Faber, wife of
Geoffrey, are estimated at £15,000-20,000 and cover a
wide range of topics, both literary and personal, including
the death of Virginia Woolf ("… I have also been pursued
by Thodora Bosanquet who wants me to write for Time and Tide
about Virginia Woolf. It is bad enough having one’s friend die
without Time and Tide…. I have toiled over a note for Horizon,
simply because I though it might be odd if I didn’t write something;
but I doubt that it will please anybody. I don’t know very much
about her writing: she was a personal friend who seemed to be
(mutatis considerably mutandis) like a member of my own family;
and I miss her dreadfully, but I don’t see her exactly as her
relatives see her, and my admiration for the idea of her milieu
– now rather old fashioned – is decidedly qualified…").
Nearly all the letters to Enid date from the period between
Eliot’s separation from his first wife in September 1932 and
his second marriage in January 1957.
For more details visit the Bonhams
web site.
