Thomas Stearns Eliot, 1888 – 1965 Born in St. Louis to a middle class, New England family. Educated in Private Schools before attending Harvard for philosophy and discovered the French Symbolists. Moved to Paris and studied philosophy Returned to Harvard Attended Oxford on scholarship, 1914, but spent most of his time in London, where he met Ezra Pound. This would become his home upon (almost) receiving his Doctorate from Harvard in Published “Prufrock” in Poetry Magazine in 1915 at the urging of Pound Settled in London permanently in 1916, working as a teacher, banker, and finally in 1925 as editor for Faber and Faber publishers. Quickly established as a pre-eminant poet of modernism 1922 published “The Wasteland,” which is thought of as the best poem of modernism Became canonized as poet and critic in academia In 1927 gained British Citizenship and converted to Anglicanism (catholicism)

Poetry, to be good must be difficult.