(Thomas Stearns Eliot), 1888-1965, American-British poet and critic, b. St. Louis, Mo. One of the most distinguished literary figures of the 20th cent., T. S. Eliot won the 1948 Nobel Prize in Literature. He studied at Harvard, the Sorbonne, and Oxford.

In 1914 he established residence in London and in 1927 became a British subject. After working as a teacher and a bank clerk he began a publishing career; he was assistant editor of the Egoist (1917-19) and edited his own quarterly, the Criterion (1922-39). In 1925 he was employed by the publishing house of Faber and Faber, eventually becoming one of its directors.-continue at Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2002 Columbia University Press. He is most famous for such poems as "The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock" and "The Waste Land." He was born in St.

Louis, Missouri, but spent most of his adult life living in London, England.