Join us for another of Westminster Arts Reference Library's 'Artists of London' Series. In addition to the talk and a Q+A, each includes a spotlight on a special item from the Library's collection - in this case, a first edition of Eliot's literary journal The Criterion from 1922.

The event will be held online via the Zoom platform (details emailed to you nearer the event).

The American-born British poet, essayist, playwright and literary critic T S ELIOT is considered one of the 20th century's most important Modernist literary figures. In addition to being a writer he worked in London as a teacher, editor, publisher - and banker - whilst becoming a central figure in the city's intellectual scene. And the metropolis features in much of his work - especially in the haunted masterpiece The Waste Land.

TINA BAXTER joins us for a talk based around the City of London walking tour that visits places that are integral to the poem and inspired the poet. She will reveal the architecture of Eliot’s 'Unreal City' in the light of references and allusions in The Waste Land and make connections with geographical locations that influence the the narrator. Short readings from the poem will evoke the historic sites and myriad London literary connections that Eliot alluded to throughout the work.

Unreal City,

Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,

A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,

I had not thought death had undone so many

Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,

And each man fixed his eyes before his feet

__________

TINA BAXTER is a City of London Guide and historian. With Miss Kitty Pridden, she curates The Georgian Dining Academy with regular suppers at Simpson's Tavern off Cornhill: They have curated events at the Cartoon Museum, Maritime Museum, Royal Academy, Dr Johnson's House and Hatchlands Park.

Photo: St Mary Woolnoth by Ben Brooksbank.