Letter from T.S. Eliot, London, to E. McKnight Kauffer, 1941 August 29 : typescript signed.

Relating personal news from London and discussing Kauffer's move to New York; saying "I have a combination of excuses for not writing before : in war time, when people are so much separated one has a larger correspondence, and I feel a stronger obligation to write often to my relatives in America. During the autumn months I was too tired, with ARP [Air Raid Precautions] duties, to do more than I had to - not that I had any perils and adventures, but simply that I lost so much sleep. Then my landlord gave up his flat, and since then I have had no place of my own : since November I have spent three days a week in London, and four in Surrey - living, in both places, as a kind of p.g. with friends. This involves a difficult rearrangement of the day's work, as instead of spreading things out nicely as before (my pre-war system was almost ideal) I have to do three days of business and three of private work. Nevertheless, it is the best arrangement possible in these times, for carrying on my various activities. Then, having got very tired, I became a victim of influenza early in January, and was ill off and on well into the spring; and since July have gone through the various stages of having most of my teeth out and new ones supplied. So it has been a disorderly year. I wish that I might have some direct news from you or Marion, but so far I have not deserved it. It must have been very difficult for you to make the decision to leave, but I can well understand and sympathise with the reasons, and I think it was the best thing to do. I have no doubt that the problem of adaptation to New York has been very trying too;" relating news of mutual friends; adding "...I have very little social life, for there is very little to have; and moving between London and Surrey every week abbreviates one's spare time. I have written a fourth poem to complete the series from Burnt Norton; but I am not satisfied with it, and am putting it aside to work on in the winter after I have got two or three other jobs off. John has made a number of useful criticisms. I shall, I think, be in better shape for the winter than a year ago;" offering to introduce him to his brother, Henry Ware Eliot, who lives in Cambridge.