It is painful for me to have to write the following lines. I cannot conceive of writing my autobiography. It seems to me that those who can do so are those who have led purely public and exterior lives, or those who can successfully conceal from themselves what they prefer not to know about themselves – there may be a few persons who can write about themselves because they are truly blameless and innocent. In my experience, there is much for which one cannot find words even in the confessional; much which springs from weakness, irresolution and timidity, from petty self-centredness rather than from inclination towards evil or cruelty, from error rather than ill-nature. I shall be as brief as I can.
I think it’s fair to say that for anyone interested in the life of T. S. Eliot, this is a thunderbolt coming from beyond the grave. There has been much speculation about Eliot’s relationship with Emily Hale, and as far as I know, this is the first time that any such statement from Eliot has been seen.
Source: Statement by T. S. Eliot on the opening of the Emily Hale letters at Princeton | T. S. Eliot