Tom Williams

The lonely passions of Emily Hale and Mary Trevelyan

The stories of two remarkable women who hoped – with good reason – to marry T.S. Eliot show the poet in an unfamiliar light

Emily Hale – the Hyacinth girl of The Waste Land and T.S. Eliot’s great love. [Smith College Special Collections] 
issue 08 October 2022

This year marks the centenary of the publication of The Waste Land, the poem that made T.S. Eliot famous. His story is familiar and yet still surprising. What is well known: Ezra Pound whipped The Waste Land into shape, it was published in The Dial and then The Criterion, and it was quickly recognised as a poem of great importance.

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