T.S. Eliot

1
T.S. Eliot
2
Biography

• BIRTH AND DEATH
• On September 26, 1888 Thomas Stearns Eliot was
  born in Missouri. In 1965, he died in London at
  the age of seventy-seven.
• CHILDHOOD
• His father, Henry Ware Eliot, was the president
  of the Hydraulic Brick Company. His mother,
  Charlotte Champe Stearns, was a volunteer at the
  Humanity Club of St. Louis. Before becoming a
  volunteer, she was a teacher. When he was born,
  his parents were in their mid-forties and his
  siblings were already grown.
• EDUCATION
• He attended Harvard University and left with a
  masters and undergraduate degrees. Later, he
  returned to Harvard to receive a doctorate degree
  in philosophy.

3

• OTHER PROFESSIONS
• Eliots professions included a poet, critic, and
  editor.
• CONTRIBTIONS TO LITERATURE
• The Waste Land, published in 1922, is said to be
  the single most influential poetic work of the
  twentieth century.
• For the next thirty years following 1930, Eliot
  was viewed to many people as the most dominant
  figure in poetry and literary criticism in the
  English-speaking world.
• LITERARY INFLUENCES
• While attending Harvard, he discovered Arthur
  Symonss The Symbolist Movement in Literature.
  In this book, he found the poetic works of Jules
  Laforgue. After reading Laforgues works, Eliot
  became inspired.

4
Eliots Works

• Prufrock and Other Observations. (1917).
• Ara Vos Prec. (1919). Republished in the US as
  Poems. (1920).
• The Sacred Wood. (1920).
• The Waste Land. (1922).
• Homage to John Dryden. (1924).
• Poems 1909-1925 (includes "The Hollow Men").
  (1925).
• Sweeney Agonistes (in Criterion). (1926).
• For Lancelot Andrewes. (1928).
• Ash-Wednesday. (1930).
• Anabasis, a Poem by St-John Perse (Eliot
  translation). (1930).
• Selected Essays 1917-1932. (1932).
• The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism.
  (1933).
• After Strange Gods (1933 lectures at the
  University of Virginia). (1934).
• The Rock A Pageant Play. (1934).
• Murder in the Cathedral. (1935).

5

• Essays Ancient and Modern. (1936).
• Collected Poems 1909-1935 (includes "Burnt
  Norton"). (1936).
• The Family Reunion. (1939).
• Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. (1939).
• The Idea of a Christian Society. (1939).
• East Coker. (1940).
• The Dry Salvages. (1941).
• Little Gidding. (1942).
• Notes Towards the Definition of Culture. (1948).
• The Cocktail Party. (1949).
• The Complete Poems and Plays, 1909-1950. (1952).
• The Confidential Clerk. (1954).
• On Poetry and Poets. (1957).
• The Elder Statesman. (1959).
• Collected Poems, 1909-1962. (1963).
• Posthumous publications
• The Waste Land A Facsimile and Transcript of the
  Original Drafts Including the Annotations of Ezra
  Pound, edited and with an introduction by Valerie
  Eliot. (1971).Inventions of the March Hare Poems
  1909-1917, featuring previously unpublished
  works, edited by Christopher Ricks. (1996).

6
Awards Recognitions

• Eliot received
• the Hanseatic Gothe Prize in 1954.
• the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1948.
• the Order of Merit in January 1948.
• the Dante Gold Medal in 1959.
• Eliot was recognized as an Officier de la Legion
  dHonneur.

7
(No Transcript)
8
Works Cited

• Academy of American Poets Online,
  http//www.poets.org
• Modern American Poetry, http//www.english.uiuc.ed
  u/maps/poets.htm
• Andrew and Eliot, http//cats.users5.50megs.com/an
  dreand.htm