Eliot, T.S.

discussing Eliot's work especially The Elder Statesman (“…something of the theme of The Elder Statesman was simmering in my mind at the time when you invited me down to see Oedipus at Colonus…”, 4 September 1958), comments on its performance and admitting a weakness in the play’s conclusion, with several letters written around the time of The Cocktail Party, discussing rehearsals and how Alec Guinness "made a success of the play” (8 September 1949), also with discussions of Allen's own literary research (“…I should like to know whether there are other parallels of Miltonic imagery with that of Dante which would support the possibility of your attribution…”, 24 Oct 1951), as well as letters written in his editorial capacity on the publication of books by Allen, notably The Timeless Moment, and the rejection of others including a thriller (“...The plot is extremely ingenious and involved, but I think that it moves too slowly, and especially that it is very slow indeed in starting...”), with the subject of fine wine being threaded through the correspondence, including the gradual depletion of his supply of Chateau Léoville-Barton '45, Eliot accusing Allen in one letter of having "given us almost a Kummel addiction”, one letter mentioning the Lady Chatterley trial and another "the debasement of the English language and betrayal of the Christian Faith" in the New English Bible, many of the letters arranging visits or cancelling with apologies for his ill-health, several letters with autograph postscripts or corrections, a small number annotated by the recipient, 62 pages, 4to and 8vo, one letter with autograph addressed envelope, headed stationery of Faber and Faber, 24 Russell Square, London, 18 December 1944 to 24 April 1964, some creasing

[with three books by Eliot, each with one of the letters tipped in, and one pamphlet:] The Elder Statesman, Faber and Faber, 1959, 8vo, first edition, inscribed by the author to Allen ("reminding him of the Bradfield theatre and of a letter he wrote to me two years ago") on 22 April 1959, followed by an explanatory note by Allen, dust jacket; The Family Reunion, Faber and Faber, 1948, inscribed by the author, dust jacket; Collected Poems 1909-1935, Faber and Faber, 1945, dust jacket; The Cultivation of Christmas Trees, Faber and Faber, 1954, 8vo, first edition, wrappers, inscribed by the author, with envelope, dust jackets frayed with loss



[also with:] 11 typed letters signed and one autograph note signed by Valerie Eliot, and one typed letter signed on her behalf by her secretary, to Allen, including an account of Ezra Pound's visit after Eliot's death (“...Sitting in Tom’s chair he absorbed everything intently while I was aware of his deep distress...”, 28 August 1965), 5 March 1963 to 20 November 1987

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A charming correspondence with a friend of Eliot's last twenty years. Herbert Warner Allen (1881-1968) was a versatile writer: an expert on wine and author of a number of detective novels, his most significant book was probably The Timeless Moment, an interpretation of mystical experience, which drew its title from a line in The Four Quartets and was published by Faber in 1946. Eliot's reading of The Timeless Moment for Faber first brought the men together, but they evidently found each other convivial company. Allen's son was the artist George Warner Allen (1916-1988). Eliot wrote an introduction to a 1952 catalogue of his work (not recorded by Gallup) and owned one of his paintings. See also the next two lots.