Miscellany

A collection of fragments, of interest to TS Eliot enthusiasts

Eliot’s Preoccupations, “A unique window onto Eliot’s concerns and enthusiasms, from America and Culture to Religion and Rhyme.”

Documents

Eliot’s first magazine – his Fireside, created when age 10

TS Eliot in the 1910 Class Album at Harvard

The marriage certificate of TS Eliot, “Of No Occupation” and Vivienne Haigh-Wood, 26th June 1915

Eliot’s 1918 registration card

Eliot’s staff card at Lloyds Bank

Eliot’s resignation statement as Editor of The Criterion, issue 18, January 1939

TS Eliot’s membership application to The London Library

Christmas card, sent by TS Eliot to Lawrence Durrell in 1945, the first year of peace

Christmas card, sent by TS Eliot in 1946

Christmas card, sent by TS Eliot in 1947

An envelope addressed in rhyme by TS Eliot

The Order of Service for TS Eliot’s interment at East Coker (PDF download)

 

In Eliot’s hand

The Waste Land, pages from the manuscript displayed by The British Library

The notebook manuscript of Fourth Caprice in Montparnasse in Eliot’s hand

Typescript of Ash Wednesday II

Manuscript draft of part of Little Gidding, Section II

An autographed quotation from Little Gidding, written on a Faber & Faber correspondence card

An autographed quotation from Little Gidding, dated 17 iii 45

An unusually intimate signature, on a letter to his second cousin Henrietta, 29 July 1956

Virginia (1959), in Eliot’s hand

TS Eliot’s drawings

(See also books inscribed or signed by Eliot on the Rare Books & Manuscripts page)

 

Quotes

Popular Quotes Attributed to Eliot – a table which confirms the source, or denies the attribution, of the quotations most commonly attributed to Eliot.

“Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal” – an investigation into one of Eliot’s most oft-quoted statements

 

Residences

TS Eliot’s birthplace plaque, in the pavement of St Louis (the location is now, it seems, a car park)

The Eliot family summer house in Gloucester, Massachusetts, converted into a writers’ retreat by the TS Eliot Foundation

TS Eliot’s life in Crawford Mansions, Marylebone

TS Eliot’s residence (now a restaurant) and plaque in West Street, Marlow

Carlyle Mansions, Chelsea, where Eliot shared a flat with John Hayward from 1946-1957

Details of TS Eliot’s blue English Heritage plaque, at his home in Kensington from 1957 to his death

 

Locations

A pilgrimage to The Dry Salvages, Boston

A pilgrimage to Margate Sands

TS Eliot’s blue plaque at Nayland Rock shelter, Margate

A visit to St Michael’s, East Coker

A visit to Little Gidding

Little Gidding church website

TS Eliot’s Faber & Faber office plaque, Bloomsbury

The photographs on TS Eliot’s office wall at Faber & Faber

TS Eliot’s memorial stone in Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey

 

Possessions

TS Eliot’s fountain pen, held by the Royal Society of Literature, and available for newly elected Fellows to sign into the Society; the Waterman’s pen bears Eliot’s initials. An article explains the donation of “Tom’s pen” to the RSL.

TS Eliot’s Panama hat, “quaintly emblematic of an earlier age”

The bookplate designed for TS & Valerie Eliot by David Jones

Valerie Eliot’s charm bracelet, made by Garrard’s, with one charm for each of her husband’s major works.

 

Recollections

TS Eliot’s Table Talk – including what is said to be his favourite quotation…

A letter in The Times recalls what Valerie Eliot described as TS Eliot’s favourite anecdote

TS Eliot in the theatre – the recollections of his Director, E Martin Browne

TS Eliot and Groucho Marx – an article explores their unexpected relationship, while a letter from Groucho to Gummo recalls their dinner together.

TS Eliot and cheese – an extraordinary reminiscence of Eliot at the Garrick by Hugh Kenner

 

Parodies

The Waste Land – Five Limericks – by Wendy Cope

Chard Whitlow, a parody of Eliot by Henry Reed

A parody of The Waste Land by James Joyce

A parody of The Waste Land by HP Lovecraft

Waste Land Clearance, by DA Wilkinson, Punch 1953 (illustrated by EH Shepard)

 

Miscellaneous

The story of Homage to TS Eliot, staged at The Globe for The London Library after his death. (An audio recording of Groucho Marx’s contribution to this evening, mistakenly described as at Eliot’s funeral, can be heard here on YouTube, and a recording of the evening’s production of Sweeney Agonistes is here.

Allen Ginsberg on The Waste Land, and its connections with Apollinaire – with an image of Ginsberg’s annotated copy

How Eliot used the Oxford English Dictionary – and how the Oxford English Dictionary used Eliot

An advertisement for Prufrock-Litton, the furniture store whose name may have inspired Eliot

Mrs Runcie’s Pudding, a recipe submitted by Eliot in 1954 to Symphony of Cooking compiled for the Women’s Association of the St. Louis Symphony Society.

The description of Cat Morgan by TS Eliot, as it first appeared in Faber Book News

Practical Cats, illustrated by Andy Warhol – the story and images as they appeared in Sports Illustrated (!) in January 1957.

The original sales ledger for copies of the first edition of Prufrock (PDF download)

Admission tickets for TS Eliot and his father Henry Ware Eliot to the 1904 St Louis World’s Fair, formally titled the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company.

This man, Eliot” – an extraordinary US advertisement for The Confidential Clerk

 

 

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