To mark the centenary of Valerie Eliot’s birth, on 17 August 1926, we reproduce here John Haffenden’s essay on Valerie, featured in volume five of The Letters of T. S. Eliot.
The Letters of T. READ
The Poetry Society of America and the T. S. Eliot Foundation are pleased to announce that Daniel Schonning is the winner of the 2026 Four Quartets Prize for his collection As When Waking (University of Chicago Press, 2025).
Selected by judges Paisley Rekdal, Charif Shanahan, and Brian Teare. READ
Volume 3 of those letters collected online begins with an apology. Eliot writes to Natalie A. Duddington on 5 January 1926:
READ‘[I] am writing immediately to explain to you the position with regard to your translation of Bunin’s ‘A Night at Sea’ which I accepted for the Criterion […] During the whole of the summer, negotiations were proceeding for the transfer of the publication of the Criterion from Mr Cobden-Sanderson to Messrs Faber & Gwyer Limited.’
Marylebone Theatre is hosting a programme of music and spoken word featuring readings from Four Quartets.
The programme weaves music by Purcell, Haydn, Beethoven, Dowland, Locke, and Britten with two poems from T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, read by A. N. READ
The tenth annual T. S. Eliot Lecture at the Abbey Theater, Dublin will be delivered by Colm Tóibín.
The evening will be introduced by the Abbey Theatre’s artistic director Caitríona McLaughlin, interspersed with readings by Cathy Belton, and followed by a conversation with James Shapiro. READ
This June marks 110 years since T. S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock was first published, in the June 1915 edition of Harriet Monroe’s Poetry magazine, a milestone in the history of poetry in English. To celebrate this anniversary, the actor Freddie Fox recites the poem (having memorised it) and chats with James Lever of Dead Poets Live about Prufrock and learning poetry by heart.
The T. S. Eliot International Summer School is convening at Merton College, Oxford from 5th to 13th July 2025. The Summer School brings together renowned scholars and students from around the world for a nine-day, immersive exploration of the life and work of T. READ
Richard Harries is to give the T. S. Eliot Society’s Annual Lecture this year. The lecture, titled Eliot, Auden and the enjoyment of life, will be given at Newnham College, Cambridge on Thursday 24th October at 5:30pm, and will be followed by a drinks reception. READ
The T. S. Eliot Estate in association with the Abbey Theatre presents: The T. S. Eliot Lecture 2024 with Ralph Fiennes.
The ninth annual T. S. Eliot Lecture will feature Ralph Fiennes reading and then discussing his relationship with T. S. READ
