The Hyacinth Girl

Among the greatest of poets, T. S. Eliot protected his privacy while publicly associated with three women: two wives, Vivienne and Valerie, and a church-going companion, Mary Trevelyan. This presentation concealed a life-long love for an American: Emily Hale, a drama teacher to whom he wrote (and later suppressed) over a thousand letters. Hale was the source of "memory and desire" in The Waste Land; she is the Hyacinth Girl.Drawing on the only recently unsealed 1,131 letters Eliot wrote to Hale, leading biographer Lyndall Gordon reveals a hidden Eliot. Emily Hale now becomes the first and consistently important woman of life -- and his art. She was at the centre of a love drama he conceived and the inspiration for the lines he wrote to last beyond their time. 'As exciting as a detective story... Gordon establishes the profound influence [the relationship with Emily Hale] had upon the substance and imagery of Eliot's work' Margaret Drabble, New Statesman'The Hyacinth Girl is not only insightful and important, but a moving account of an unfairly obscured life' Tablet