eliot society uk

"I said to my soul be still, and wait without hope"

*New for 2010*

The 2010 Journal is out now - don't forget, it's free to all society members.

July

Look out for updates from the festival, which took place on Saturday 17th

May

On Sunday 30th, leading British poet Ruth Padel read from T S Eliot's poem 'Little Gidding' as part of a service at Westminster Abbey to commemorate Nicholas Ferrar, whose life at Little Gidding made the place - in Eliot's words - somewhere 'where prayer had been valid'.

The service also included extracts from Ralph Vaughan Williams' 'Five Mystical Songs', his setting of some of the poetry of Nicholas Ferrar's friend George Herbert.

March

On the 21st, the Society met for a play reading of The Cocktail Party - held in Little Gidding.

 

February 

This year on the 22nd February, we held a lunch at the Riverside Restaurant in the Graduate Centre (Cambridge) in honour of Frank Kermode (third from right in the photo below), who gave the inaugural annual T S Eliot Lecture in November of last year.

Lunch

Lunch with Sir Frank Kermode, 2010

News 2009

The Society is delighted that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, has agreed to become its Patron.

Books Wanted

(this project is on hold at present. 9/09)

 

To help students, writers and others make more use of our substantial collection of Eliot-related books we are attempting to add a catalogue of these to the web-site, and then to ask any of you who have spare or no longer used copies of gems absent from our list whether you would be willing to loan or donate those into our care at Ferrar House. Condition not important!

It is also our hope that each book entry on the web-list can be accompanied by a few lines written by a
member who is familiar with it, to indicate why they recommend it to any of us who have not yet read it.

An Imperfect Life

For example -

Eliot,T.S: The Idea Of A Christian Society. (1935)
"very much a product of its malevolent times, and out-dated now, but with a very good later introduction in the Pelican re-print."

Gordon, Lyndall: An Imperfect Life.
" generally regarded as the most insightful biography of Eliot yet published 1998."

Masirevitch, Constance: On the Four Quartets of TSE (1953)
"A short book which will either delight you or make little sense if you cannot share her starting point. Very concise."

Raine, Craig: Lives and Legacies, T.S.Eliot (2006)
"Not a biography, but very much worth absorbing as an up-date."
[not yet in our collection]

Schuchard, Ronald : Eliot's Dark Angel (1999)
"A collection of ten superbly researched essays of which the title one is outstanding."

Spurgeon, Charles : J.Henry Shorthouse: The Author of John Inglesant.
"John Inglesant is the remarkable best-selling novel of the 1880s in which the original Ferrar House features prominently."

"This psychological analysis of its author's inner religious processes, related to Eliot's of 30 years later, is not an easy read, but well worth the effort if you can stay with it, and are familiar with psychological concepts)."

Ricks, Christopher : T.S.Eliot: The Inventions of The March Hare. (1996)
"Not a book for pleasant reading, it contains and analyses many previously unpublished poems written between 1905 and 1920. Quite disconcerting."

Rajan, B: T.S.Eliot A study of his writings by several hands (1947).
"Eight focussed essays, still likely to be helpful to the general reader today."

 

"I will show you fear in a handful of dust"