Call Number:

C1294

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 1 box
• 0.2 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Emily Hale Collection, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1929-1930 (bulk) and 1929-1967 (inclusive)

Creator:

Hale, Emily, 1891-1969

Form:

Correspondence -- 20th century

Abstract:

Consists chiefly of selected letters of J. J. Hayes sent to Emily Hale related to the Irish theater in the first quarter of the twentieth century.

Emily Hale was born on October 27, 1891. She was an actress and stage director, and taught drama and voice instruction at Simmons College, Milwaukee-Downer College in Wisconsin, Scripps College, and Abbott Academy. She met the poet T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) while he was at pursuing a graduate degree at Harvard, and maintained a lifelong and close friendship with the poet, corresponding with him and routinely visiting him over several decades. Out of his reminiscing of their former relationship, Eliot composed "Burnt Norton" published as the last poem in his Collected Poems 1909-1935 (1936). Hale died in 1969.

The collection consists of selected correspondence of James Juvenal Hayes Hayes and T. S. Eliot collected by Emily Hale, related to an upcoming trip to Dublin, Ireland. Hayes was the Irish theater literary critic and correspondent for the New York Times and the Boston Globe, and in his letters, he provides Hale with information regarding developments occurring in the Irish theater in the first quarter of the twentieth century. He writes about the Abbey Theatre and the Gate Theatre which was started by Hilton Edwards and Micheál Mac Liammóir, and the latter's effect on the decline of the former. Hayes relates how the emergence of new Irish authors producing their works at the Gate contributed to its success. He criticizes some Irish authors and performances at the Gates Theatre including those of Curtis Canfield, Denis Johnston (and his The Old Lady Says No), Thomas Cornelius Murray (and his The Pipe in the Fields), Lennox Robinson's Ever the Twain, and the plays Dover Road, Juggernaut, and Ten Nights in a Barroom. Hayes' letters also include details of his travels in Ireland. In addition, there are two letters by T. S. Eliot to Emily Hale discussing English and American authors and poets, such as W. H. Auden and Ezra Pound, and one letter and a photograph of F. C. Armstrong.

There is a typed note initialed by Hale, dated 1967, explaining her relationship with both Hayes and Armstrong.

Arranged by correspondent.