liot, edited by Professor Frank Kermode, gathers work from Eliot's unrivalled career as a literary and social critic. These thirty-one essays-categorized as "essays in generalization," "appreciations of individual authors," and "social and religious criticism" were written over the course of a half century, and include his most famous essays to lesser known works from before 1918. This volume reveals Eliot's original ideas, cogent conclusions, and skill and grace in language.

THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT was born in St Louis, Missouri, in 1888. He moved to England in 1914 and published his first book of poems in 1917. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. Eliot died in 1965.