James Joyce Quarterly

Abstract:

This essay presents three previously unknown letters that James Joyce sent T. S. Eliot between 1930 and 1932. Eliot forwarded the letters as enclosures to Emily Hale, the speech and drama teacher with whom he conducted a twenty-seven-year correspondence. Eliot's letters to Hale–along with almost two hundred enclosures–remained sealed at Princeton University until 2 January 2020. The essay outlines Eliot's relationship with Hale and attempts to explain why he sent her Joyce's letters and other enclosures. Joyce's letters are fully annotated and offer a glimpse into his personal and professional concerns in the early 1930s, a period that included the death of his father and the birth of his grandson.