T.S. Eliot

Facts

Thomas Stearns Eliot

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Thomas Stearns Eliot
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1948

Born: 26 September 1888, St. Louis, MO, USA

Died: 4 January 1965, London, United Kingdom

Residence at the time of the award: United Kingdom

Prize motivation: “for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry”

Language: English

Prize share: 1/1

Life

Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. He was educated at Harvard and did graduate work in philosophy at the Sorbonne, Harvard, and Merton College, Oxford. He settled in England, where he eventually became literary editor for the publishing house Faber & Faber. In 1927, Eliot became a British citizen. He founded and edited the influential literary journal Criterion (1922–1939).

Work

In 1915, Eliot attracted widespread attention for his poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” which was seen as a masterpiece of the Modernist movement. It was followed by some of the best-known poems in English language, including “The Waste Land” (1932), “The Hollow Men” (1925), and “Ash Wednesday” (1930). His belief that poetry should aim to represent the complexities of modern civilization made him one of the most daring innovators of 20th century poetry.

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