T. S. Eliot and Paul Valéry: 1920-1925

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore, from the perspective of biographical criticism, the relationship between T. S. Eliot, the greatest English modernist poet, and Paul Valéry, the greatest French Symbolist poet during the years 1920-1925. This paper is to thoroughly trace the mutual relationship or the influential interaction between Eliot and Valéry mainly through correspondence in The Letters of T. S. Eliot 1: 1898-1922 (2009) and The Letters of T. S. Eliot 2: 1923-1925 (2009). Eliot, the editor of The Criterion, mediates perfunctorily in publishing first Captain Mark Wardle’s translation of Valéry’s “Le Serpent” (1922) in the literary magazine in 1923 with the help of Richard Cobden-Sanderson the publisher and Lady Rothermere the patron, and second Le Serpent par Paul Valéry (1924) with Wardle’s translation and his “A Brief Introduction to the Method of Paul Valéry.” Valéry’s high praise for Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922) is sharply contrasted with the latter’s severe critique on the former’s “L’Âme et la danse: Dialogue socratique” (1921). Charles Whibley and John Hayward, as intimate mutual friends of Eliot and Valéry, play important roles in consolidating their respectful friendship. In short, numerous English and/or French letters of Eliot and Valéry over a period of six years intensively reveal their influential interplay ranging from editor-contributor relationship to laudable masterly international friendship. This study will further elucidate the relationship between Eliot and Valéry during the years 1926-1929.