Pictured on a 22¢ US commemorative postage stamp in the Literary Arts
series, issued 26 September 1986 (98th anniversary of his birth).
Became a British subject in 1927.
Appointed a Member of the Order of Merit in 1948.
Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964.
One of the most famous and celebrated poets of the 20th century.
Most famous as the author of two rather difficult poems which have
become literary classics, "The Waste Land" (1922) and "The Love Song of
J. Alfred Prufrock" (1917).
His first wife, a Cambridge governess, was named Vivienne, but she
preferred to spell her name Vivien. They separated in 1933. In 1938 she
was committed to a mental hospital, where she lived until her death in
1947. Eliot never visited her there.
His second wife was 38 years younger than he. She was his
personal secretary for seven years before they married.
Virginia Woolfe reacted badly to his religious conversion.