Thomas Stearns Eliot, better known as T.S. Eliot, was born on September 26, 1888, in St. Louis, Missouri. His ancestors emigrated from England to the United States in the 17th century, and Eliot’s grandfather, William Greenleaf Eliot, founded Washington University in St. Louis. Eliot grew up in a devoutly Unitarian household that emphasized social responsibility, literature, and religion—factors that would deeply influence his future work. Eliot attended Smith Academy in St. Louis and later enrolled at Milton Academy in Massachusetts. In 1906, Eliot entered Harvard University, where he studied philosophy, literature, and languages, earning both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. His fascination with philosophy led him to engage in further studies at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1910 and 1911, where he was exposed to the French symbolists, a group of poets and writers whose influence would be a lifelong presence in his writing. Eliot returned to Harvard briefly but ultimately left for England in 1914 to study at Merton College in Oxford. When World War I broke out, his desire to immerse himself in the European intellectual climate prompted him to stay in England, where he would remain for the rest of his life.

Eliot’s early career was influenced by a powerful shift in the direction of modernist literature.