By: Brian Paynter

Early Life  Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri  He attended Smith Academy in St. Louis and then the Milton Academy in Massachusetts  Attended Harvard  Due to WWI he never went back to Harvard to take the final exam

Early Life  He married Vivienne Haigh-Wood and took a job in London, England, as a school teacher.  Not long after he became a bank clerk A position he would hold on to until 1925

Early Literary Career  It was around this time when Eliot began a lifelong friendship with American Poet Ezra Pound  The first poem of this period was “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock  Eliot also wrote literary criticisms and reviews

Literary Career  In 1919, Eliot published poems which contained “Gerontion”  Eliot used many symbols in his poetry and it was very detailed.  In 1922, Eliot wrote “The Wasteland”  That same year, he a literary journal called Criterion  2 years later, Eliot left his bank job and joined a publishing house, “Faber&Faber”

Literary Career  His later poems included “Ash Wednesday” and “Four Quartets” These would prove to be influential writings  Eliot was not only a poet but he was involved in drama.  Eliot wrote 7 plays The most famous being “Murder in the Cathedral” and “The Cocktail Party  For his vast influence in poetry, criticism, and drama, Eliot won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948 and Won the Order of the Merit

Conclusion  T.S. Eliot influenced many people with his writings and make people think beyond their limits. He made many contributions to literature and is one of the most daring innovators of twentieth-century literature. Thomas Stearns Eliot died on January 4th, 1965