T. S. Eliot as a Critic
Eliot, T. S., in full THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT (b. Sept. 26, 1888, St. Louis, Mo., U.S. – d. Jan. 4, 1965, London, Eng.), American-English poet, playwright, literary critic, and editor, a leader of the modernist movement in poetry in such works as The Waste Land (1922) and Four Quartets (1943). Eliot exercised a strong influence on Anglo-American culture from the 1920s until late in the century. His experiments in diction, style, and versification revitalized English poetry, and in a series of critical essays he shattered old orthodoxies and erected new ones. The publication of Four Quartets led to his recognition as the greatest living English poet and man of letters, and in 1948 he was awarded both the Order of Merit and the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Early years. Eliot was descended from a distinguished New England family that had relocated to St. Louis, Mo. His family allowed him the widest education available in his time, with no influence from his father to be “practical” and go into business. From Smith Academy in St. Louis he went to Milton, in Massachusetts; from Milton he entered Harvard in 1906; he was graduated B. A. in 1009, after three instead of the usual four years. The men who influenced him at Harvard were George Santayana, the philosopher and poet, and the critic Irving Babbitt. From Babbitt he derived an anti-Romantic attitude that, amplified by his later reading of British philosophers F. H. Bradley and T. E. Hulme, lasted through his life. In the academic year 1909-10 he was an assistant in philosophy at Harvard.
He spent the year 1910-11 in France, attending Henri Bergson’s lectures in philosophy at the Sorbonne and reading poetry with Alain-Fournier.
(p. 452)
Eliot’s study of the poetry of Dante, of the English writers John Webster and John Donne, and of the French Symbolist Jules Laforgue helped him to find his own style. From 1911 to 1914 he was back at Harvard reading Indian philosophy and studying Sanskrit. In 1913 he read Bradley’s
Early years. Eliot was descended from a distinguished New England family that had relocated to St. Louis, Mo. His family allowed him the widest education available in his time, with no influence from his father to be “practical” and go into business. From Smith Academy in St. Louis he went to Milton, in Massachusetts; from Milton he entered Harvard in 1906; he was graduated B. A. in 1009, after three instead of the usual four years. The men who influenced him at Harvard were George Santayana, the philosopher and poet, and the critic Irving Babbitt. From Babbitt he derived an anti-Romantic attitude that, amplified by his later reading of British philosophers F. H. Bradley and T. E. Hulme, lasted through his life. In the academic year 1909-10 he was an assistant in philosophy at Harvard.
He spent the year 1910-11 in France, attending Henri Bergson’s lectures in philosophy at the Sorbonne and reading poetry with Alain-Fournier.
(p. 452)
Eliot’s study of the poetry of Dante, of the English writers John Webster and John Donne, and of the French Symbolist Jules Laforgue helped him to find his own style. From 1911 to 1914 he was back at Harvard reading Indian philosophy and studying Sanskrit. In 1913 he read Bradley’s