T.S. Eliot

             Eliot is, to many, just another name heard, but never truly known about. For a select few, he is considered one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century and "the" modernist poet and critic of all time. T. S. Eliot had a few select influences in his life that helped him and pushed him to write both his poems and his plays.
             Thomas Sterns Eliot had a few major influences in his life. T. S. Eliot was born in Missouri. Living in St. Louis for eighteen years of his life. He also attended Harvard while he was here. He moved to Sorbornne, having already earned both undergraduate and masters degrees. He left Paris after a year and returned to Harvard to get a doctorate in philosophy, but then left again in 1914 back to Europe where he settled in England. In 1915 he married Vivienne Haigh-Wood. He also met Ezra Pound, one of the few major influences in his life. When Pound saw some of his writings she immediately knew that he had talent. She helped in his publishing on his very first book of poems, which include "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock". His new wife cheated on him for a short period, and she got continually worse physically and emotionally. Eliot continued to struggle to support himself and his wife's deteriorating condition. In 1919, Eliot's father died, leaving Eliot without the chance to make right past conflicts about his marriage to Vivienne. In 1921 Eliot had a nervous breakdown and took physicians advice to take three months off for rest. During this three months, Eliot completed a poem he had been working on since 1919. Scofield Thayer, a friend from his Harvard days, had by this time become the editor of Dial, a magazine of the time. Thayer awarded Eliot with the annual prize that the magazine gave of two thousand dollars and to have an essay written by one of the more influential writers of the magazine, Edmund Wilson. In 1923, Vivienne nearly died, which drove Eliot almost to a second breakdown.