T. S. Eliot

Thomas Stearns Eliot OM (26 September 1888 – 4 January 1965) was an American-born British poet. He was one of the most influential poets of the 20th century. He also wrote plays and some important essays about literature.

Early life
He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, then went to college at Harvard. He spent most of his adult life in London, England. He became a British citizen in 1928.

Career
One famous book of his was written for children and is called The Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. The songs in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats are based on poems in it. He also wrote "The Waste Land", a very mysterious, complicated poem that helped start a new style called Modernism. His friend, Ezra Pound, another Modern poet, helped him finish it. His poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and his play Murder in the Cathedral (about Thomas Becket) are also well known.

Personal life and death
Eliot was married two times. He worked at a bank in England and later as the head editor of a famous publishing company in London that is now called Faber and Faber. In 1948, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature. He died of emphysema in London.

 Related pages 
List of poets from North America
List of poets from the United States

Category:1888 births
Category:1965 deaths
Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford
Category:American Christians
Category:American essayists
Category:American literary critics
Category:American playwrights
Category:American poets
Category:British Anglicans
Category:British essayists
Category:British Nobel Prize winners
Category:British playwrights
Category:British poets
Category:Deaths from emphysema
Category:Disease-related deaths in England
Category:Harvard University alumni
Category:Literary critics
Category:Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom
Category:Order of Merit
Category:Writers from St. Louis, Missouri
Category:Nobel Prize in Literature winners