Abstract
In September 1914, Eliot wrote a letter to his brother Henry describing his London neighborhood:
The noise hereabouts is like hell turned upside down. Hot weather, all windows open, many babies, pianos, street piano accordions, singers, hummers, whistlers. Every house has a gong: they all go off at seven o’clock, and other hours. Ten o’clock in the evening, quiet for a few minutes, then a couple of men with late editions burst into the street, roaring: GREAT GERMAN DISASTER! Everybody rushes to windows and doors, in every costume from evening clothes to pajamas; violent talking—English, American, French, Flemish, Russian, Spanish, Japanese; the papers are all sold in five minutes; then we settle down for another hour till the next extra appears: LIST OF ENGLISH DEAD AND WOUNDED. (“To Henry Eliot” 7 Sept. 1914)
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
Copyright information
© 2015 Allyson Booth
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Booth, A. (2015). “Swallowed up in the one great tragedy”: World War I and The Waste Land . In: Reading The Waste Land from the Bottom Up. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137482846_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137482846_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-69583-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-48284-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)