1888-09-26 00:00:00
Born
T. S. Eliot was born on the banks of the Mississippi River in St. Louis.
1906-08-01 00:00:00
Harvard
Studies at Harvard and receives Bachelors degree in philosophy. Then serves as philosophy assistant for two years.
1910-09-01 00:00:00
Sorbonne, France
After working as a philosophy assistant at Harvard from 1909–1910, Eliot moved to Paris, where from 1910–1911, he studied philosophy at the Sorbonne. He attended lectures by Henri Bergson and read poetry with Alain-Fournier
1911-09-01 00:00:00
Back to Harvard
Studies Indian philosophy and Sanskrit at Harvard
1914-06-01 00:00:00
Travels to Europe on Scholarship
Forced to flee Marburg University in Germany to Oxford because of WW1
1915-06-16 00:00:00
Marriage
I came to persuade myself that I was in love with Vivienne simply because I wanted to burn my boats and commit myself to staying in England. And she persuaded herself that she would save the poet by keeping him in England. To her, the marriage brought no happiness. To me, it brought the state of mind out of which came The Waste Land"
1927-06-01 00:00:00
England
Joins the Church of England and becomes a British citizen
1932-08-01 00:00:00
Return to Harvard
By 1932, Eliot had been contemplating a separation from his wife for some time. When Harvard offered him the Charles Eliot Norton professorship for the 1932-1933 academic year, he accepted and left Vivienne in England.
1933-06-01 00:00:00
Separation
Upon his return, he arranged for a formal separation from her, avoiding all but one meeting with her between his leaving for America in 1932 and her death in 1947. Vivienne was committed to the Northumberland House mental hospital, Stoke Newington, in 1938, and remained there until she died. Although Eliot was still legally her husband, he never visited her.