T. S. Eliot and Wyndham Lewis: 1923-1925

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between T. S. Eliot, arguably the greatest modernist poet, and Wyndham Lewis, the Vorticist novelist-painter, during the years 1923-1925. This paper mainly focuses on excavating numerous letters both in The Letters of T. S. Eliot 2: 1923-1925 (2009) and in The Letters of Wyndham Lewis (1963), delving into the publication processes and evaluation of Lewis’s articles including “Mr. Zagreus and the Split-Man” and “The Apes of God,” which later constitute Lewis’s Vorticist novel, The Apes of God (1930), two essays of “Art Chronicle,” and book reviews published in The Criterion edited by Eliot. The close relationship between Eliot and Lewis is juxtaposed against their ambivalent relationship with the Schiff couple: Sydney and Violet Schiff, with the Sitwell trio: Edith, Osbert, Sacheverell Sitwell, and with Lytton Strachey represented by Bloomsbury, who are satirized in Lewis’s articles. Meanwhile, their volatile relationship or quarrels are engendered by the unsettled discussions on Lewis’s 20,000-word MSS “The Perfect Action” too lengthy to be published in The Criterion, or over contribution payments. In short, the correspondence between Eliot and Lewis, and the novelist’s articles over a period of three years intensively reveal their strong influential interplay and ambivalent relationship ranging from invigorating friendship to antagonistic relationship.