T. S. Eliot. Biography

1. T. S. Eliot Biography

by A. Kurtametova

2. Content:

Eliot’s family
Education of a poet
Early poetry
The Waste Land
Four Quartets
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Honor and old age

3.

Born: September 26,
1888
St. Louis, Missouri
American-born
English author, poet,
critic, playwright,
editor, and publisher

4. Eliot’s family

Eliot grew up within the family's tradition of
service to religion, community, and education.

5. Education of a poet

In St. Louis young Eliot received a classical
education privately and at Smith Academy,
originally named Eliot Academy. He composed
and read the valedictory (something that
involves a farewell) poem for his graduation in
1905.

6. Early poetry

When the United States
entered World War I in
1917, Eliot tried to join
the U.S. Navy but was
rejected for physical
reasons. That year his first
volume of poetry, Prufrock
and Other
Observations, appeared.

7.

In The Waste Land, the weakening of society is
compared with a shattered wasteland.

8.

The poem proposes solutions for recreating
personal and caring communities through a
variety of methods and with the joining of
different religious beliefs.

9.

In 1936 Eliot
concluded his Poems
1909–1935 with
"Burnt Norton," the
first of what became
the Four Quartets.

10. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

The poem follows the conscious
experience of a man, Prufrock (relayed in
the " stream of consciousness " form
characteristic of the Modernists),
lamenting his physical and intellectual
inertia with the recurrent theme of carnal
love unattained.

11.

The poem's structure was heavily influenced
by Eliot's extensive reading of Dante and
refers to a number of literary works,
including Hamlet and those of the French
Symbolists.

12. Honor and old age

In 1948 he received the Nobel Prize and the
British Order of Merit, and the list of his
honors continued to grow.

13.

In 1947 Eliot's first wife died.
In 1957 Eliot married his private secretary,
Valerie Fischer, and remained married until
his death on January 4, 1965, in London.