May 22, 2014 - Sale 2351

Sale 2351 - Lot 202

Price Realized: $ 2,560
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 700 - $ 1,000
"REAL FAME ONLY COMES WHEN QUOTATIONS ARE USED IN BILL BOARD ADVERTISEMENTS" ELIOT, T.S. Typed Letter Signed, to friend and fellow writer Conrad Aiken ("Dear Conrad"), briefly opining on fame and sin, disapproving of a comparison of Ezra [Pound] to an unnamed person, and noting that she sent a piece for the Advocate. 1 page, 4to, "Faber & Faber" stationery; folds, paperclip stain at upper left. London, 25 September 1934
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". . . I feel . . . that real fame only comes when quotations are used in bill board advertisements: by that time one might as well be buried. . . .
"It is a pleasure to be told, so long afterwards, that anybody remembers my presence with pleasure. . . .
"I doubt whether Mrs. Babbitt will find what she is looking for. It's only perceptible if you take a certain angle of vision on both men. The comparison would be equally unwelcome to both. Ezra of course objected vociferously--but Ezra always does swallow hook, bait & sinker. That is part of the fun. . . .
"P.S. As for 'spiritual evil', I think that is commonly recognised. For spiritual sin (what besets the advanced seeker for the spiritual life) there is an account of the seven deadly on that plane in one of S. John of the Cross's treatises--I think the Ascent of Mount Carmel."