<aside> ⭐ Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 1888 – 4 January 1965). Born in St. Louis, Missouri to an old Yankee family; one of six children

</aside>

Key lifestyle qualities:

• Eliot’s father, Henry Ware Eliot (1843-1919) was a successful businessman, resident and treasure of the Hydraulic-Press Brick Company at St. Louis
• Eliot’s mother, Charlotte Champe Stearns (1843-1929) wrote poetry and was a social worker; a new profession in the early twentieth century.
• Emigrated to England in 1914 and acquired British citizenship in 1927 (age 39)
• Eliot credited his hometown of St. Louis in fuelling his literary vision

• Struggled with the physical limitations of a congenital double inguinal hernia . This meant that he could not participate in many physical activities. This lack of participation prevented him from interacting socially with his peers and leant to his love for literature.
• Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948

One of the distinguishing characteristics of Eliot’s work is the manner in which he moves seamlessly from very high, formal verse into a more conversational and easy style. While he poetic voice sounds very colloquial, there is a current underneath, which hides secondary meanings. It is this layering of meanings and contrasting of styles that mark Modernist poetry in general.