Just wanted to share three T. S. Eliot-related items:
1. Every once in a while, I like to throw a listserv reminder out there:
The T. S. Eliot listserv (TSE) is still going, it’s sponsored by U of Missouri, remains a viable, vibrant online community. Its members include non-academics, poets, students, tenured academics, retirees, and independent scholars. If you’d like to question, challenge, argue, or otherwise “unpack” Eliot’s poetry, plays, or criticism, know that new voices are always appreciated; if you’d like to join the TSE listerv, visit this page.
2. Finally, there is a T.S.Eliot.com!
Faber & Faber (Eliot’s publisher / employer) has created a website devoted to the man. Included on the site: full text/excerpts from his poems and criticism, matters related to his plays, previously unpublished letters, and more. Faber presents a wonderful resource that I imagine anyone reading Eliot would find worthwhile. (I wish I’d have had this kind of resource when I first began reading TSE. But then, no WWW in the 1980s)
3. The International T. S. Eliot Summer School looks great (again)
The annual T. S. Eliot international summer school, hosted by UCL’s Institute of English Studies, has a promising program for 2017 as well as an exciting list of guest speakers. The offerings include poetry readings, trips to sites associated with Eliot, seminars on Eliot’s work, etc. There’s also a walking tour of Eliot’s London (I sigh at this. Twenty years ago I created a just such a walking tour that I “shared” with curious/patient friends and family members).
The IES/UCL introduced the T. S. Eliot Summer School in 2009. For a number of personal and professional reasons, I’ve never attended, which is a shame. It’s certainly on the bucket list (if you will). If you have the time, the cash, and the passion for T.S.E., why not go? Do it for those of us who can’t.
JACQUELINE A. POLLARD 