I’m editing this as I’ve now read all the letters. In 1956, Eliot agreed with Emily Hale’s decision to hand over the letters to Princeton with the stipulation that they not be read by anyone for 50 years. Emily agreed until she made a formal visit to Princeton where she was talked into agreeing that the letters should be read by current scholars. Eliot wrote her back feeling betrayed and very understandably upset at the thought of anyone reading the letters while he and people mentioned were still living. He points out in his letter to Emily that fifty years is the typical modus operandi. Emily writes back saying no one had yet read his letters (I doubt her honesty as Eliot received a letter from the Librarian at Princeton about how they were cataloguing the letters and the “richness” of the material), and she says she will tell Princeton they must do the fifty years.

I assumed all along that I’d side with Emily, but in the end, I would feel betrayed and upset like Eliot. He and Emily became quite stilted and terse in the next couple of letters.

Six weeks after having been faced with Emily’s initial (She later agreed again to 50 years) choice to go against their agreement on the time of the letters, Eliot was suddenly married to his secretary Valerie.