ELIOT T. S.: (1888-1965) American-born English poet and playwright, Nobel Prize winner for ...

ELIOT T. S.: (1888-1965) American-born English poet and playwright, Nobel Prize winner for Literature, 1948. T.L.S., Tom, one page, 4to (folding air mail stationery), Russell Square, London, 18^th May 1961, to Reverend William Turner Levy, featuring the printed letterhead of Faber and Faber Ltd. Eliot states that he is writing a hurried reply to his correspondent’s letter to explain that he won’t be in London when Dr. Theobald visits, remarking ‘I have to deliver a Convocation lecture at the University of Leeds at the beginning of July, and Valerie and I expect to go North in the middle of June to visit her mother and to get a breath of the good summer air of Yorkshire’ and further adding ‘It is a pity people like your friend pay such very brief visits to this capital; perhaps they will be back again later in the year. In any case I have not met Dr. Theobald so I don’t see how I can introduce him and Mrs. Theobald to C. S. Lewis, but why should he not write to Lewis, who will probably be in Oxford at that time?’. Slightly irregular edges and with a light, thin band of discoloration to the borders, not affecting the text or signature and evidently a result of previous framing. G

William Turner Levy (1922-2008) American educator and author, a friend of T. S. Eliot, Eleanor Roosevelt and Frank Capra and the author of Affectionately, T. S. Eliot: The Story of a Friendship 1947-1965 (1968).

1. S. Lewis (1898-1963) British writer, literary scholar and Anglican lay theologian.