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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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T.S. Eliot
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(Thomas Stearns Eliot, 1888–1965) American-born British poet, who lived in England from 1914 and was naturalized in 1927. His first book of poems (*Prufrock, and other observations) was published in 1917, but it was the brilliantly fragmented expression of contemporary disillusion in The *Waste Land (1922) which brought him fame. The *Four Quartets (1944) was the culmination of his development as a poet. Like much of his later work it was specifically Christian in theme, after his confirmation in 1927 in the *Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church of England.
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Eliot had also been the leading figure in the mid-century revival of poetic drama, with *Murder in the Cathedral (1935) followed by The Family Reunion (1939) and The Cocktail Party (1949). In addition he had great influence on the British literary scene both as critic and publisher; he founded a quarterly review, the Criterion, in 1922, and subsequently built up a very strong poetry list for Faber and Faber. After his death his *Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939) became the basis of the immensely successful musical comedy Cats. He was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1948.
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