State Historical Society celebrates centennial of T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land'
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A century ago, 34-year-old T.S. Eliot — having already published his poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and a variety of prose pieces — introduced his latest work with these lines:
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Appearing first in the British magazine The Criterion, then stateside in The Dial, and finally in book form before year's end, "The Waste Land" would become one of the enduring works of modern poetry. To honor the poem's centennial, and its St. Louis-born author, the State Historical Society of Missouri will host a multi-faceted program Thursday.
The evening will feature a presentation by Carissa Staples, followed by a screening of the new documentary "T. S. Eliot: Into 'The Waste Land'" from director Susanna White. White's credits include BBC renditions of "Bleak House" and "Jane Eyre" as well as episodes of acclaimed TV shows such as "Boardwalk Empire" and "Masters of Sex."
White's film, also produced for the BBC, sifts "Eliot’s unpublished archive of over 1,000 secret letters to Emily Hale, an American drama teacher and his poetic muse," an event description notes.
"Artists and scholarsexplain the poem’s emotional origins and illuminate its obscurities, bringing this disturbing, epoch-setting poem to life for a new generation," the description adds.
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"The Waste Land," which reflects the external and internal concerns of citizens living through World War I, owns a vast but specific reach, Scottish author and scholar Robert Crawford said in a recent, wide-ranging reflection for Literary Hub.
"It’s as if this poem can give anything — a cry, a list of place-names, a snatch of conversation, a Sanskrit word, a nursery rhyme, an echo — an almost infinite and carrying resonance that brings with it unforgettable intensity," Crawford said.
Thursday's event also features an exhibit of multi-disciplinary pieces from University of Missouri students created in conversation with Eliot's iconic work.
The celebration will be held at Center for Missouri Studies, 605 Elm St. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with Staples' presentation to start at 6:45 and the documentary at 7.
To learn more, visit https://shsmo.org/.
Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at adanielsen@columbiatribune.com or by calling 573-815-1731. Find him on Twitter @aarikdanielsen.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: New documentary anchors centennial celebration of T.S. Eliot epic
