The 'Waste Land' That Left T.S.Eliot Barren!

Insync

oi-Staff

Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 17:13

TS Eliot's poem 'The Waste Land' might have given him international stardom. However, after one year, year after it was published he was broke, and on the verge of a breakdown. His personal life had turned into a nightmare despite winning accolades for his literary work.

A series of newly published letters have revealed the barren condition of T.S.Eliot. He was forced to work for Lloyds bank by day and edit Criterion, a quarterly magazine, by night. The work and the worry have taken 10 years off my life.

On March 12, 1923, he wrote: "I am now in the midst of a terrific crisis. I wish to heaven that I had never taken up the Criterion. It has been a great expense to me. I have not got a penny out of it."

The workload, and worry about money had shaken his confidence in writing. Eliot refused to give up his bank job and wrote on April 26, 1923: "The bank is a secure job for life, with a at 60, a year's salary and a for my wife in the event of my death."

On December 31, 1923, he said: "I am ashamed to have sent you such badly written articles. I must stop writing and read and think for a long time before recommencing."