Mary and Mr. Eliot: A Sort of Love Story - Hardcover

Trevelyan, Mary; Wagner, Erica

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374203180 ISBN 13: 9780374203184

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023

Synopsis

Mary and Mr. Eliot is a twin portrait of T. S. Eliot and its author, the formidable Mary Trevelyan.

In 1938 T. S. Eliot, already “a Classic in his lifetime,” struck up a friendship with Mary Trevelyan. This passionately curious woman, an intrepid traveler who, like Eliot, was deeply involved in the affairs of the Church of England, served as the warden of the Student Movement House, mere yards from the poet and editor’s office at Faber and Faber.

Their relationship was domestic rather than artistic, characterized by churchgoing, conversation, record-playing, day trips to the English countryside with Mary at the wheel of the car Tom bought her, and Eliot cooking up sausages in his shirtsleeves. Over the years, their friendship deepened, and she came to believe it might grow into something more. Twice she proposed marriage, but Eliot always led her to understand that any such commitment would be impossible for him. Then the revelation of his long attachment to Emily Hale―and the sudden shock of his marriage to his secretary, Valerie Fletcher―caused a rupture between Trevelyan and the poet that could not be overcome.

Mary Trevelyan left a unique chronicle―including diaries, letters, and pictures―that charts their twenty-year relationship. Now Erica Wagner has given it shape and context, bringing this untold story to light for the first time. Mary and Mr. Eliot is a tale of joy, misunderstanding, and betrayal that feels utterly modern and deeply human.

About this title

About the Authors

Mary Trevelyan (1881–1966) was a noted humanitarian and commentator on British culture and society. From 1938 to 1957, she was a close friend of T. S. Eliot. She left an unpublished manuscript, The Pope of Russell Square, about their relationship, which has been edited and expanded by Erica Wagner.

Erica Wagner is the author of Gravity: Stories; Ariel's Gift: Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath and the Story of Birthday Letters and Seizure: A Novel. Pas de Deux/A Concert of Stories, co-written with storyteller Abbi Patrix and musician and composer Linda Edsjö, tours around the world. Twice a judge of the Man Booker Prize, she was literary editor of The Times for for seventeen years, and she is now a contributing writer for New Statesman and consulting literary editor for Harper's Bazaar, as well as writing for many publications in Britain and the United States. She is the editor of First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner, which has just been published by Unbound.
ericawagner.co.uk / @EricaWgnr

Edition details

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0374203180
• ISBN 13: 9780374203184
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320