The Life and Works of TS Eliot
The Life and Works of T.S. EliotOne of the most influential and celebrated writers of the twentieth century was T. S. Eliot. In his writings he was able to successfully capture the feelings of his time. His contributions to the genre of poetry has had a profound effect on modern literature. While Eliot is most well known for his poetry, he was also an accomplished playwright and author of several books of social criticism (Kunitz 303).
Thomas Stearns Eliot, the youngest of seven, was born September 26, 1888 in St. Louis Missouri. His father, Henry Ware Eliot, was a Washington University graduate and son of a very respected Unitarian minister. At the time of his son=s birth, he had risen to the position of chairman of the Hydraulic Press Brick Company. The city of St. Louis was growing rapidly and the Eliot=s brick firm was becoming very successful. (Unger 567). Thomas Eliot=s mother, Charlotte Champe Eliot, came from an affluent family in Massachusetts. In her spare time she wrote several books including a biography of her father-in-law (Sencourt 3).
The childhood of Thomas Eliot was especially pampered because he was afflicted with a hernia. His parents wealth allowed them to hire an Irish nurse to look after him. Later when Eliot was to attend grammar school at Smith Academy, he was unable to partake in games with his peers because of his infirmity. Instead, young Eliot used this time to develop his reading and writing skills. As a child, Eliot was an admirer of Mark Twain=s classic novels, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Having grown up in a city on the Mississippi, he was able to relate to many of the people and places in the story. Thomas grew up in a very strict Unitarian household where both his grandfather and uncle were very prominent ministers. His father held strongly to his religious teachings and encouraged his children that through thrift and intelligence, the goal of a Unitarian was to gain success in this world (Sencourt 5-9).
At the age of sixteen, Eliot was sent to Massachusetts and attended Milton Academy preparatory school. Milton was a highly regarded Unitarian school for the privileged. There Thomas concentrated his studies on physics, Latin, and history. During his years at Milton, Eliot began to cultivate an interest in sailing. His father had purchased a house in Glouceter, on the coast of Massachusetts. It was here where he and his brother, Henry Ware Eliot Jr., learnt to sail. Eliot=s hernia prevented him from participating in many sporting activities thus sailing became a keen interest of his which he pursued until his years at collage (Sencourt 10-14).
In 1906, after spending two years at Milton, Eliot was accepted into Harvard University. At Harvard, he majored in philosophy and studied under such famous professors as William James, author of The Varieties of Religious Experience and leader of the pragmatic movement, and Charles Eliot Norton, who...
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