T.S. Eliot was a huge fan of Groucho Marx, and in 1961 he wrote a fan letter to him. Marx replied, and the two corresponded for a few years. But when they finally met in person in 1964, things didn’t quite go to plan – Marx had brushed up on his literature beforehand, expecting to discuss intellectual things, but all Eliot wanted to talk about was Marx’s 1933 comedy Duck Soup. [1]
Thomas Stearns Eliot was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic, and editor. Considered to be one of the 20th century’s major poets, he is a key figure in Modernist poetry.
Born in St Louis, Missouri, his father, Henry Ware Eliot, was a successful businessman and his mother, Charlotte, was a school teacher and poet. Eliot was the last of six surviving children and grew up in the family’s tradition of religious and community service. As a child, Eliot suffered from congenital double inguinal hernia, which prevented him from participating in physical activities, so he had few friends and spent most of his time reading. He was especially fond of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
Eliot was educated at Harvard and did graduate work in philosophy at the Sorbonne, Harvard, and Merton College, Oxford. While still a student, he wrote The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock in 1915, which, at the time of its publication, was considered outlandish and attracted widespread attention. In the same year, he married Vivienne Haigh-Wood, a Cambridge governess. The marriage was unhappy, partly because of Vivienne’s health problems, and as time went by, Eliot became detached from her. They separated in 1933 and Vivienne was committed to a mental institution by her brother, where she remained until her death in 1947.
In 1957, at the age of 68, Eliot married his 30-year-old private secretary, Esmé Valerie Fletcher, and remained with her until his death in January 1965.
T.S. Eliot reached a degree of success and celebrity that was rare among literary figures of his day. His notable works include The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915), The Waste Land (1922), The Hollow Men (1925), Ash Wednesday (1930), Four Quartets (1943), Murder in the Cathedral (1935), and The Cocktail Party (1949). He was awarded the 1948 Nobel Prize in Literature, “for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry,” and the British Order of Merit by George VI.