The Chronicle of Higher Education
November 24th, 2014
The first letter was dated June 19, 1970. "Dear Mrs. Eliot," it began.
The recipient was Valerie Eliot, widow of T.S. Eliot. The writer was Ronald Schuchard, a young literature scholar. "I have been researching Mr. Eliot’s lesser known writings for over three years," he wrote, "and I have written a master’s thesis and a doctoral dissertation on my findings."
He asked for permission to read some of Eliot’s unpublished writing, permission that could be granted only by Mrs. Eliot, who controlled the estate.
So commenced a correspondence, and eventually a friendship, between an extremely patient academic and a woman known for fiercely protecting—some might say overprotecting—the papers of the revered poet who ushered in High Modernism.
That first letter was never answered. Four years later, Mr. Schuchard received a note from Mrs. Eliot in response to a message he had sent her through a mutual friend. "Miss Pinnard tells me that you are in London until after Christmas, and would like to see me in connection with your work," Mrs. Eliot wrote. She invited him to her London flat, the one she had shared with her late husband, for a drink.