It feels befitting to start my CCEPS project on Valentine’s day because I will be working on the T.S. Eliot Collection at Denison Library. And this is so, not just because Eliot wrote many love poems, but because I will be examining Eliot’s (most likely) romantic relationship with Emily Hale, a former faculty member at Scripps.
Thanks to this “friendship” (we really don’t know for sure what kind of relationship they had. I am certain though that we will know more when T.S. Eliot’s 1,131 letters to Hale become open to the public on 1/1/2020), T.S. Eliot was here in Claremont several times and the collection houses memorabilia, handwritten cards, and letters from Eliot. He made friends in Claremont through Hale and I am excited to explore his connection to Claremont by digging into the box!
This post card caught my eye today. It’s sent on April 6th, so I presume that the “Valentine’s Post Card” is just a printing company owned by someone named Valentine. But still, I thought it was cool and sort of relevant. Eliot writes to Jeanette McPherrin (a friend of Hale’s): “This is to let you know that there is still a good deal of snow about Inverness, which I left yesterday morning. Crocuses are out, however. T.S.E.” Decoding his handwriting has been tough. Initially I read “snow” as “show” and I could not figure out “crocuses” until Dr. Susan Allen helped me out. More to come, I’m sure.