Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965) was born in St. Louis, Missouri, but moved to England in 1914 and became a British citizen in 1927. Though he had been raised in the southwestern United States, Eliot traced his family's roots to New England, where he vacationed. He studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and at Merton College, Oxford, England. Instead of pursuing an academic life, Eliot turned to business and poetry, working as a clerk for Lloyd's Bank of London and as editor and director of the London publishing house Faber and Faber, all the while writing the poems that were to make him famous. The most explosive of these was The Waste Land, which burst upon the literary scene in 1922, becoming for a long time the most famous modern poem in English. Earlier, Eliot had written "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," a dramatic monologue that portrays the life of a timid, inhibited man.

Major works by Eliot (poetry except where noted)

Eliot and the Web

Here's a great start page from the Academy of American Poets. It has a photo, bio, a bibliography, and some links.

Interested in what other scholars have to say about T.S. Eliot? Check out the "T.S. Eliot Discussion List."

Here are some links to poems, including The Waste Land and "Prufrock" in etext.