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PEOPLE & ARTS Wednesday 8 January 2020
T.S. Eliot letters show love for muse but poet downplays it

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Re- Letters to Hale from 1930 — mon.”
cently unveiled letters from contained in the first of 14 “It may be too harsh, to
T.S. Eliot to his muse Emily boxes — show Eliot confess- think that what she liked
Hale show how much he ing his love for her. was my reputation rather
loved his longtime friend, “They are extremely pas- than my work,” he wrote.
but a statement from be- sionate,” Dickey said. “It’s Eliot scholar Anthony Cuda
yond the grave by the poet really more than what I called that a “cold and un-
himself dismisses his feelings expected. They are very true statement.”
and shows how Eliot tries to emotional, claiming that “He pursued her,” he said.
rewrite the narrative of their she inspired a lot of his po- “His earliest letters were ar-
relationship, scholars say. etry. She obviously played dent declarations of love.
Hale donated Eliot’s let- a really important role in his It’s not as if she chased af-
ters to Princeton University poetic life.” ter him.” In other letters, El-
Library more than 60 years Dickey said it’s become iot comments on the pain
ago with instructions that more obvious that the “hy- and happiness of intimacy,
they could only be opened acinth girl” in “The Waste according to Dickey, and
50 years after she and Eliot Land,” Eliot’s most famous even confesses his craving
died. poem, is Hale. for alcohol and reveals de-
The day they were made Also among the boxes of tails about his private life.
available at the Ivy League letters is a manuscript Hale Hundreds of letters still need
school, Eliot’s statement, wrote about their relation- to be read; only a few cop-
written five years before his ship. Her account and his ies can be seen at a time
death, was released — as early letters trace the same at the library, and there are
per his own instructions. narrative, Dickey said. no copies available online.
In it, Eliot downplays his love In his statement, Eliot does There are a few different
for Hale. admit he once loved Hale. reasons Eliot might be trying
“I came to see that my “I fell in love with Emily Hale to rewrite history, the schol-
love for Emily was the love in 1912,” he wrote. He told ars say. Hale donated the
of a ghost for a ghost,” he her so two years later. letters while the two were
wrote. “I have no reason to be- still alive, and Eliot feared
Eliot scholar Frances Dick- lieve, from the way in they might be released be-
ey, who was among the which this declaration was In this file photo, Emily Hale and T.S. Eliot pose in a 1946 family fore the embargo date. El-
first to read the letters at received, that my feelings photo in Dorset, Vermont. iot had ordered the letters
the New Jersey school were returned,” Eliot wrote. Associated Press he’d received from Hale
Thursday, said it was “un- He married his first wife, Vivi- destroyed.
fortunate” that Eliot felt he enne Haigh-Wood, in 1915, They separated in 1933. Hale eventually developed “He was looking back on
had to deny his feelings for a year after his declaration. “Emily Hale would have feelings for Eliot, but the this and felt embarrassed
Hale. The two had a tumultuous, killed the poet in me; Vivi- poet writes that, as time and ashamed at the open-
“That seemed a little harsh,” loveless marriage marred enne nearly was the death went on, he realized “more ness and vulnerability he al-
Dickey said. “She was his by Haigh-Wood’s mental ill- of me, but she kept the and more how little Em- lowed to come through at
muse for many years.” ness and alleged infidelity. poet alive,” Eliot wrote. ily Hale and I had in com- the time,” Cuda said. q

Fox adding 'The Masked Dancer' to 'The Masked Singer'

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — dancing, "and I cannot
"The Masked Singer" has wait!" Meanwhile, Jamie
been such a hit for Fox that Foxx will join "The Masked
the network is doubling Singer" as a guest panel-
down on hidden entertain- ist along with regulars Ken
ers. Jeong, Jenny McCarthy,
Fox said Tuesday that it is Nicole Scherzinger and
joining with Ellen DeGe- Robin Thicke and host Nick
neres to produce "The Cannon for the show's third
Masked Dancer," a celebri- season premiere on Feb. 2
ty competition show based after the Super Bowl.
on "The Masked Singer" The show will take its regu-
and a segment that DeGe- lar time slot on Feb. 5.
neres originated on her talk This season, 18 disguised
show. Contestants will per- celebrities will be split into
form unique dances while three groups of six, and
covered from head to toe immediately be whittled
in elaborate costumes and down to three singers in
face masks, leaving audi- each group. The final nine
ences to guess their identi- from all three groups will
ties. compete for the trophy.
"This is gonna be just as fun Among the new custom-
and suspenseful as 'The made costumes for the
Masked Singer,' with a lot In a Sunday, Jan. 5, 2020 file photo, Ellen DeGeneres, winner of the Carol Burnett award, poses singers are the Robot, the
more krumping," DeGe- in the press room at the 77th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, in Beverly Frog, the Banana, the
neres said in a statement, Hills, Calif. Associated Press Mouse, the monster and
referring to a style of street the llama.q