Dickey Frances - The Edinburgh Companion to T. S. Eliot and the Arts

The Edinburgh Companion to
T. S. Eliot and the Arts

T HE E DINBURGH
C OMPANION TO
T. S. E LIOT AND
THE A RTS

E DITED BY F RANCES D ICKEY
AND J OHN D. M ORGENSTERN

EDINBURGH

University Press

Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: www.edinburghuniversitypress.com

editorial matter and organization Frances Dickey and John D. Morgenstern, 2016

the chapters their several authors, 2016

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ISBN 978 1 4744 0528 7 (hardback)

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The right of Frances Dickey and John D. Morgenstern to be identified as the editors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).

Published with the support of the Edinburgh University Scholarly Publishing Initiatives Fund.

C ONTENTS

A CKNOWLEDGMENTS

M any people have contributed to this volume beyond its authors, and we wish to thank those who have given their time and expertise: first, our editors at Edinburgh University Press, especially Jackie Jones and Adela Rauchova, who sought out, supported, and encouraged this project; James Dale, Rebecca Mackenzie and Camilla Rockwood, whose contributions throughout the production process were invaluable; members of the T. S. Eliot Society who provided valuable feedback about many of these chapters in earlier versions, including David Chinitz, Ronald Schuchard, Anthony Cuda, Timothy Materer, Michael Coyle, Nancy D. Hargrove, Anita Patterson, Jayme Stayer, Julia Daniel, and especially Vincent Sherry, for his generous reading and advice; Jim McCue for his advice; Christopher Ricks, for the inspiration of his example and encouragement; Ronald Bush for his advice; Rmi Labrusse for his expertise and assistance; Iman Javadi, whose attentive reading and editorial suggestions were invaluable; Anne Nishimura Morse, curator of Asian Art at the MFA in Boston; staff at Ellis Library and the Missouri State Historical Society at the University of Missouri for the use of their collections and help with digitizing historic photographs; the Centre for the History of the Book at the University of Edinburgh; Catherine Piganiol at the Bibliothque byzantine at the Collge de France; staff at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum archives; and Camille Cooper and Kathy Edwards, librarians extraordinaires at Clemson University. Finally, and most importantly, we thank our families, especially Stew, Matthew, Thomas, Charles, and Barbara, without whose support and patience the volume certainly would not have reached completion.

Illustration Credits

A BBREVIATIONS OF W ORKS
BY T. S. E LIOT

P REFACE

Ronald Schuchard

T he essays in this timely collection represent a significant new turn to the arts in the work of T. S. Eliot, facilitated by the ongoing appearance of long-awaited editions of his poems, prose, letters, and plays commissioned by the late Valerie Eliot. The lifting of restrictions on these several genres now provides scholarly access to Eliots lifetime engagement with the arts in both popular and high culture, showing him to be far removed from tired allegations of cultural elitism, continuously educating himself not only in literary but in visual and performance traditions, seeking friendships in artistic circles, and vigorously defending the arts from censorship as critic and editor. The authors of these new studies in the several arts have begun to mine the wealth of previously uncollected and unpublished archives, building upon David Chinitzs T. S. Eliot and the Cultural Divide (2003) and expanding the range and depth of the Asian, Renaissance, Victorian, and modern art forms with which Eliot enriches the cultural texture of his oeuvre.

As a Harvard student, Eliot educated himself in the arts both informally as a voracious reader and concertgoer, and formally in the classroom, including Fine Arts 20b: Italian Renaissance Artists, which he took during the 190910 academic year. In this course, taught by Edward Forbes, Director of Harvards Fogg Museum, Eliot took copious notes on the paintings, frescoes, and altarpieces of Uccello, Castagno, Veneziano, Fra Filippo Lippi, Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Donatello, and Michelangelo, among others, with frequent visits to the Fogg. He continued his exploration of the arts and architecture during the 191011 academic year at the Sorbonne in Paris, which included a journey to Italy for visits to museums and cathedrals, as chronicled by Nancy D. Hargrove in