Thomas Stearns Eliot, Short Note For UP PGT English

                      Basic Biography & Personal Facts

1. Full Name: Thomas Stearns Eliot.
2. Birth Date: September 26, 1888.
3. Birthplace: St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
4. Death Date: January 4, 1965.
5. Place of Death: London, England.
6. Father’s Name: Henry Ware Eliot, a successful businessman.
7. Mother’s Name: Charlotte Champe Stearns, a poet, teacher, and social worker.
8. Literary Age: He is a leading figure of the 20th Century/Modernist era.
9. Ancestry: His ancestors moved from England to America in 1668.
10. Education (Early): He attended Smith Academy from 1898 to 1905.
11. Gold Medal: He won a gold medal for Latin at Smith Academy in 1900.
12. Languages Studied: Latin, Ancient Greek, French, and German.
13. Harvard University: He completed his BA and MA here, studying Philosophy and Sanskrit.
14. Oxford University: He attended Merton College, Oxford, for higher studies.
15. Sorbonne, Paris: He also studied Philosophy in Paris.
16. Doctoral Thesis: His thesis was titled "Knowledge and Experience in the Philosophy of F.H. Bradley".
17. Refusal of Degree: Though he submitted his thesis, he never returned to Harvard to take the degree.
18. Citizenship Change: He moved to England in 1914 at the age of 25.
19. British Citizenship: He became a British citizen in 1927.
20. Religious Conversion: He converted to Anglicanism (Church of England) in 1927.
21. Famous Declaration: He described himself as a "classicist in literature, royalist in politics, and anglo-catholic in religion".
22. Physical Ailment: As a child, he suffered from a congenital double hernia.
23. First Wife: He married Vivienne Haigh-Wood in 1915.
24. Marital Strife: His first marriage was unhappy due to Vivienne’s mental and physical illness.
25. Second Wife: He married his secretary, Valerie Fletcher, in 1957.

II. Professional Career & Roles

26. Teaching: He briefly worked as a school teacher in London.
27. Banking: He worked as a clerk at Lloyds Bank in the Foreign Accounts department.
28. Pulpit of Modernism: He is often called the "High Priest of Modernism".
29. Faber & Faber: He joined the publishing house Faber & Faber in 1925 and became a Director.
30. Editor of The Egoist: He served as assistant editor from 1917 to 1919.
31. Editor of The Criterion: He founded and edited this influential magazine from 1922 to 1939.
32. Friendship with Ezra Pound: Pound was his mentor, guide, and friend who helped launch his career.
33. Harvard Advocate: His early poems were published in this college magazine.
34. Nobel Prize: He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948.
35. Order of Merit: He received the Order of Merit (OM) in 1948.
36. Presidential Medal of Freedom: Awarded by the USA in 1964.
37. Versatility: He was a poet, critic, essayist, playwright, editor, and publisher.
38. Impact on Criticism: He is considered the father or a major influencer of New Criticism.

III. Major Poetry: "The Waste Land" (1922)

39. Publication Year: 1922.
40. Significance: It is considered a masterpiece of Modernist poetry.
41. Total Lines: The poem consists of 434 lines.
42. Dedication: Dedicated to Ezra Pound.
43. Epithet for Pound: He called Pound "il miglior fabbro" (the better craftsman).
44. Five Sections: The poem is divided into five parts.
45. Section I: "The Burial of the Dead".
46. Section II: "A Game of Chess".
47. Section III: "The Fire Sermon".
48. Section IV: "Death by Water".
49. Section V: "What the Thunder Said".
50. Opening Line: "April is the cruellest month...".
51. Theme of April: Unlike Chaucer, who saw April as a time of rebirth, Eliot saw it as cruel because it forces memory upon a hopeless world.
52. Closing Line: Ends with the Sanskrit chant "Shantih shantih shantih".
53. Pound’s Editing: Ezra Pound heavily edited the original manuscript, reducing it by nearly half.
54. Fisher King: The poem uses the myth of the Fisher King to represent modern spiritual decay.
55. The Grail Legend: The poem is deeply influenced by myths of the Holy Grail.
56. Modern Epicity: Often called the "Epic of the Modern Age".
57. Urban Setting: It depicts the squalor and "unreality" of modern London.
58. Tiresias: The blind prophet who is the most important "character" or consciousness in the poem.

IV. Other Important Literary Works

59. First Major Poem: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915).
60. Prufrock's Style: It is a dramatic monologue influenced by Robert Browning and French Symbolism.
61. Prufrock Quote: "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons".
62. "Portrait of a Lady": Published in 1917.
63. "Preludes": Published in 1917.
64. Prufrock and Other Observations: His first collection of poems (1917).
65. "Gerontion": A major poem published in 1920.
66. "The Hollow Men" (1925): Explores themes of spiritual emptiness.
67. Ash Wednesday (1930): His first long poem after his conversion to Anglicanism.
68. Four Quartets (1943): Often considered his greatest philosophical/spiritual work.
69. Quartets Titles: "Burnt Norton," "East Coker," "The Dry Salvages," and "Little Gidding".
70. The Sacred Wood (1920): An important collection of critical essays.
71. "Tradition and the Individual Talent" (1919): His most famous critical essay.
72. "The Metaphysical Poets" (1921): Where he introduces "Dissociation of Sensibility".
73. "Hamlet and His Problems" (1919): Where he introduces the "Objective Correlative".
74. Verse Dramas: He revived the tradition of Poetic Drama in the 20th century.
75. Murder in the Cathedral (1935): A play about the martyrdom of Thomas Becket.
76. The Family Reunion (1939): A verse drama exploring guilt and redemption.
77. The Cocktail Party (1949): A successful verse play combining drawing-room comedy with spiritual themes.
78. The Confidential Clerk (1953): A later play.
79. The Elder Statesman (1958): His final play.
80. "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats": A collection of light verse for children; "Old Possum" was Pound's nickname for Eliot.

V. Critical Theories & Key Terms

81. Objective Correlative: The idea that emotions should be expressed through a "set of objects, a situation, a chain of events".
82. Coined by: The term "Objective Correlative" was originally coined by Washington Allston, but popularized by Eliot.
83. Hamlet as Failure: Eliot called Shakespeare's Hamlet an "artistic failure" because it lacked an objective correlative.
84. Macbeth as Success: Eliot cited Macbeth as an artistic success because of its effective use of imagery (like the sleepwalking scene).
85. Dissociation of Sensibility: A theory that since the 17th century, poets began to separate thought from feeling.
86. Unification of Sensibility: The ideal state where a poet feels their thought as "immediately as the odour of a rose" (typical of John Donne).
87. Impersonality Theory: Eliot argued that poetry is not the expression of personality, but an "escape from personality".
88. Poet as Catalyst: He compared the poet’s mind to a catalyst (like platinum) that remains unchanged while facilitating a reaction between feelings.
89. Concept of Tradition: Tradition is not a blind following of the past but a "historical sense" of the presence of the past.
90. Poetry Definition: "Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion".
91. Anti-Romanticism: His theories were a direct reaction against the Romantic definition of poetry (like Wordsworth's "spontaneous overflow").
92. Mythical Method: The use of ancient myths to provide a structure and meaning to the "immense panorama of futility" that is modern life.

VI. Literary Style & Themes

93. Fragmentation: Modern life is broken, so modern literature must be fragmented.
94. Allusions: His work is densely packed with references to the Bible, Dante, Shakespeare, and Eastern philosophy.
95. Indian Influence: He was deeply influenced by the Upaniṣads, Bhagavad Gītā, and Sanskrit literature.
96. Free Verse: He frequently used free verse (vers libre), though it was never truly "free" of discipline.
97. Symbolism: Heavily influenced by French Symbolists like Jules Laforgue and Charles Baudelaire.
98. Metaphysical Influence: He revived interest in John Donne and the 17th-century Metaphysical poets.
99. Theme of Boredom: His early poetry often deals with the boredom, squalor, and routine of urban life.
100. Spiritual Emptiness: A recurring theme reflecting the "Age of Anxiety" following WWI.
101. Dante Alighieri: Eliot considered Dante the greatest of all poets and was profoundly influenced by The Divine Comedy.
102. Intellectualism: He moved poetry away from the purely emotional towards the intellectual and "difficult".
103. Time: His work (especially Four Quartets) explores the intersection of time and eternity.
104. Isolation: Themes of loneliness and the inability of modern people to communicate.
105. Moral Decay: Reflection on the loss of religious faith and ethical standards in the 20th century.

VII. Key Phrases & Famous Quotes

106. "April is the cruellest month" (The Waste Land).
107. "I will show you fear in a handful of dust" (The Waste Land).
108. "Shantih shantih shantih" (The Waste Land).
109. "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons" (Prufrock).
110. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" opening: "Let us go then, you and I...".
111. "In my beginning is my end" (East Coker).
112. "In my end is my beginning" (East Coker).
113. "Poetry is an escape from emotion" (Tradition and the Individual Talent).
114. "The historical sense... makes a writer most acutely conscious of his place in time, of his own contemporaneity" (Tradition and the Individual Talent).
115. "The better craftsman" (referring to Ezra Pound).
116. "Old Possum" (Pound’s nickname for Eliot).
117. "Unreal City" (The Waste Land).
118. "Datta, Dayadhvam, Damyata" (The Waste Land: Give, Sympathize, Control).

VIII. Influences & Connections

119. Irving Babbitt: His teacher at Harvard who influenced his anti-Romanticism.
120. George Santayana: Another philosophical influence at Harvard.
121. F.H. Bradley: The subject of his doctoral thesis; his philosophy of experience influenced Eliot’s views on subjectivity.
122. Charles Baudelaire: Taught Eliot how to use the "squalid" details of city life in poetry.
123. Jules Laforgue: Influenced the ironic, detached tone of his early poems like Prufrock.
124. John Donne: The primary model for Eliot's "Unification of Sensibility".
125. F.M. Cornford & Jessie Weston: Their anthropological works (From Ritual to Romance) provided the structure for The Waste Land.
126. James Joyce: A contemporary whom Eliot admired; his "Mythical Method" in Ulysses was praised by Eliot.
127. Virginia Woolf: A fellow member of the Bloomsbury circle/Modernist movement.
128. Edward FitzGerald: Reading FitzGerald's translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam at age 14 first sparked his interest in poetry.

IX. Miscellaneous Exam Facts

1. Age at Death: He died at the age of 76.
2. Burial Site: His ashes are buried in the St. Michael’s Church, East Coker.
3. East Coker Connection: This was the ancestral home of his family in England.
4. Epitaph: The words "In my beginning is my end. In my end is my beginning" are inscribed on his memorial.
5. Poet’s Corner: A memorial stone for him was unveiled in Westminster Abbey in 1967.
6. Nobel Year: 1948 (same year as Order of Merit).
7. First Published Poem: "A Fable for Feasters" (1905).
8. Early Short Stories: "Birds of Prey," "A Tale of a Whale," and "The Man Who was King".
9. Relationship with Conrad Aiken: A lifelong friend and fellow writer.
10. "The Age of Anxiety": A term used to describe the period Eliot dominated.
11. Simultaneous Order: Eliot's term for the way new works of art change our perception of all previous works.
12. The Criterion's End: He stopped publishing it in 1939 due to the outbreak of WWII.
13. Social Worker Mother: His mother’s work influenced his social consciousness.
14. Merton College: The specific Oxford college he attended.
15. Sanskrit and Pāli: He studied these for two years at Harvard.
16. Anti-Provincialism: Eliot believed literature should be "European," not just national.
17. "Old Possum" meaning: A "quiet but clever" person (like a cat playing dead).
18. Faber Director: He remained a director at Faber and Faber until his death.
19. WWI Influence: He was unable to return to America because of the war and thus settled in England.
20. Religious Identity: He was often called an Anglo-Catholic.
21. Milton Controversy: Eliot famously criticized Milton for "dissociating sensibility" but later partially recanted his view.
22. Literary Legacy: He is regarded as the most influential poet and critic of the English-speaking world in the 20th century,