Lot Details
Lot 43
ELIOT, T.S. Two typed letters signed to Dudley Sheppard, Esq.
London: 11 March 1935 and 7 December 1945. Two typed letters on differing examples of Eliot's Faber & Faber stationery, both signed "T.S. Eliot" in ink and both with one emendation in Eliot's hand. The 1935 letter 10 x 8 inches (25 x 20 cm), the later letter slightly smaller. Both with folds, the later letter with minor handling creases and a slight smudge to the signature, both previously sold by The 19th Century Shop, Baltimore.
In the 1935 letter, Eliot thanks Sheppard for remarks on Triumphal March and explains about "the final line in French which you ask is a quotation from a passage in L'Avenir de l'Intelligence by Charles Maurras" with further description. In the 1945 letter, Eliot returns poems to Sheppard and is highly critical of his use of free verse: "you do not succeed in justifying such consistent use of free verse which very often becomes rhythmless and monotonous ... unless the freedom becomes the form of the poem, it is a failure ... it is often desirable to have a definite form in the background for the verse to struggle against."
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