Author's Briography

Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 26, 1888 to Henry Ware (a businessman) and Charlotte Stearns Eliot (a poetess). Endowed with and proud of their social connections and respectability, the Eliot family made the most of it. Eliot went to only the very best schools: Smith Academy in St. Louis (grammar school), Milton Academy in Massachusetts (secondary school). By 1906 he was a freshman at Harvard University. He finished his bachelor's degree in only 3 years, graduated in philosophy from 1910-1914, and even studied at the Sorbonne in Paris for a year.

As he had taken up residence in England and liked it so much, he decided not to return to America. Part of this decision had to do with his falling in love with a beautiful English girl named Vivienne Haigh-Wood.  Eliot only returned home for occasional visits, and became a British citizen in 1927 after a period of much soul-searching. However, Eliot said that he should be considered an American rather than an English poet.

In 1915 Eliot married Vivienne, who would later die in 1945 after a long period of increasingly degenerate health (both physical and mental).  Eliot would not remarry until 1957 to Valerie Fletcher.

Being an introspective kind of person, Eliot underwent a profound religious calling.  After much soul-searching and inner turmoil, Eliot was confirmed as a member of the Anglican church in 1927.  This brought him a much more positive attitude towards life that can be seen in his writings after this date.

Eliot died on January 4, 1965.