Introduction to British novelist Eliot

Eliot (1948)

[UK]

Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965) British and American poet , playwright and critic. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, originally from England. His father is a brick and tile merchant, and his mother is a poet and knowledgeable. In 1906, Eliot entered Harvard University to study philosophy and English and French literature, and embarked on the path of creating symbolic poetry. In 1910, he went to Paris to study philosophy and literature at the University of Sault. In 1913, he served as an assistant professor in the Philosophy Department of Harvard University. In 1914, he went to London to study Greek philosophy at Oxford University. Soon he got married and settled in the UK. He worked as a teacher, bank clerk, and magazine editor. In 1922, he founded the literary review quarterly "Standard". In 1926, he became a lecturer at Oxford University. In 1927, he joined the British nationality and the state religion. In 1952, he was appointed Director of the London Library. Died in 1965.

Eliot began writing poetry in 1909 and successively published "Prufrock's Love Song" (1917), "Collected Poems" (1919), "The Waste Land" (1922), and "The Collected Poems of Eliot" "(1909-2925), "Journey of the Eastern Sages" (1927), "Grey Wednesday" (1930), "Selected Poems" (1909-1935), "Four Quartets" (1943), etc. Among them, "Prufrock's Love Song" is a representative work of early poetry; "The Waste Land" was produced in the middle period of creation and is an epoch-making work of 20th century Western literature and a milestone in modernist poetry; "Four Quartets" is a representative work of late poetry.

After the 1930s, Eliot devoted his main energy to the creation of poetic dramas. His major works include "Murder in the Cathedral" (1935), "Family Reunion" (1539), "Cocktail Party" (1950), "Confidential Secretary" (1954), and "Political Elders" (1959).

Eliot was also one of the founders of the British and American New Criticism. His main works include "Tradition and Personal Talent" (1917), "On the Metaphysical Poets" (1921), and "The Function of Criticism" (1923), "The Utility of Poetry and Criticism" (1933), etc.

Eliot claimed to be a royalist in politics, an Anglo-Catholic in religion, and a classicist in literature. His cultural thoughts belong to the categories of neo-scholasticism and monasticism. He advocates making religion the political and cultural center and using "religious revival" to save the civilization crisis of Western capitalism. Eliot's literary creations and critical works played a pioneering role in the 20th century British and American modernist literature and new critical theory. He was known as the "master of modern literary criticism" and once became a leader in the British and American poetry circles.

In 1948, Eliot won the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his outstanding contributions and pioneering role in contemporary poetry."