The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem

Chosen as a New Statesman, Financial Times, Observer, and Sunday Times Book of the Year
A riveting account of the making of T. S. Eliot's celebrated poem The Waste Land on its centenary.

Praise for The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem

• 'A rattling good story' – Sunday Telegraph
• 'A work of art' – Times Literary Supplement

About the Book

The Waste Land has been called the 'World's Greatest Poem'. It has been described as the most truthful poem of its time and branded a masterful fake. More than a century after its publication in 1922, T. S. Eliot's enigmatic masterpiece remains one of the most influential works ever written.

In a remarkable feat of biography, Matthew Hollis reconstructs the creation of the poem and vividly brings to life the material reality of its charged times.

Hollis reveals:

• The cultural and personal trauma that forged The Waste Land.
• The roles of its key protagonists:
  • Ezra Pound, who edited it.
  • Vivien Eliot, who sustained it.
  • T. S. Eliot, whose private torment is woven into the seams of the work.

The result is an unforgettable story of lives passing in opposing directions and the astounding literary legacy they would leave behind.