T. S. Eliot

T.S. Eliot was born the youngest of six siblings in St. Louis, Missouri. Due to several health problems that prevented him from much physical activity while he was young, Eliot was a voracious reader. When he was 17, he published several poems and short stories, but it wasn’t until later, in 1917 and 1922, that he published his famous poems “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “The Waste Land.” After leaving St. Louis, Eliot studied at Harvard and then stayed on as a philosophy assistant. From there he moved to Paris to study philosophy, meeting several distinguished philosophers, and then to Oxford during the outbreak of the First World War. He later left Oxford because it felt lifeless to him. While there, however, he met Ezra Pound, who was impressed by Eliot and later helped him to publish his work. Eliot remained in England, teaching and working at a bank. He also married Vivienne Haigh-Wood, whose mental and physical instability led to their eventual separation. Eventually, in 1925, Eliot became the director of the publishing company Faber and Gwyer, where he would go on to publish many famous English poets, such as W.H. Auden and Ted Hughes. Eight years before his death, Eliot married Esme Valerie Fletcher. After his death from emphysema in 1965, Esme annotated and edited many of Eliot’s works and letters in order to preserve his legacy. Eliot left behind some of the greatest masterpieces in English poetry, as well as many plays and distinguished works of literary criticism.