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Lead book review

The lonely passions of Emily Hale and Mary Trevelyan

Tom Williams describes how two women’s hopes of marrying T.S. Eliot came to nothing

8 October 2022

9:00 AM

8 October 2022

9:00 AM

The Hyacinth Girl: T.S. Eliot’s Hidden Muse Lyndall Gordon

Virago, pp.432, 25

Mary & Mr Eliot: A Sort of Love Story Mary Trevelyan and Erica Wagner

Faber, pp.320, 20

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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