The Complete Prose of T. S. Eliot: The Critical EditionVol. 5: Tradition and Orthodoxy, 1934-1939

Cheese. To the Editor of The New Statesman and Nation

The New Statesman and Nation, NS 10 (21 Dec 1935) 977

Sir, – Mr. David Garnett (reviewing Mr. Osbert Burdett’s book) is in error in supposing that there is no tolerable American cheese. ¹ There is a delicious cheese of Port Salut type made by Trappist monks in Ontario. ² But Trappist monks, like their cheese, are the product of “a settled civilisation of long standing,” and I fear there is little demand for either. ³ Americans seem to prefer a negative cream cheese which they can eat with salad: and American salads are barbaric.

I wish Mr. Garnett would take the initiative in founding such a society as he suggests; ⁴ and I for one would be glad to buy a Double Cottenham, if he could put me in the way of it. ⁵

t. s. eliot Oxford and Cambridge University Club, Pall Mall, S.W.I.