T.S. Eliot

An Imperfect Life

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by Lyndall Gordon

W. W. Norton and Co.

Due/Published October 2000, 672 pages, paper

ISBN 0393320936

New in paper (F00)

Lyndall Gordon's biographical work on T.S. Eliot has drawn dramatic accolades from many quarters but has been unavailable for years. In T.S. Eliot: An Imperfect Life, Gordon brings new material together in one volume with the best of her earlier work. She draws on scores of recently discovered letters, and she addresses in full the issue of Eliot's anti-Semitism as well as the less-noted issue of his misogyny. She also provides an unparalleled exploration of the participation of women in his work. Gordon's first book, Eliot's Early Years, was described by Richard Ellman as "the most thorough and best-written account of Eliot's early life and works"; and her second, Eliot's New Life, was hailed by Cynthia Ozick in The New Yorker as "daring, strong, psychologically brilliant." Throughout, as Michiko Kakutani has written, Gordon writes "with judicious sympathy and an intimate knowledge of his poetry and plays." The aim, Gordon writes, is "to follow the trials of a searcher whose flaws and doubts speak to all of us whose lives are imperfect."