Richard Aldington Worked with Eliot on The Criterion until November 1923.

Charlotte Champe Stearns Eliot The poet’s ageing mother had by now lost her husband, Henry Ware Eliot, a prominent industrialist from Missouri. She was both a support and a concern for her son, as she wrote from her retirement in Massachusetts. She never quite reconciled herself to his marriage, or his residence in England.

Richard Cobden-Sanderson A notable publisher who worked closely with Eliot on The Waste Land and The Criterion.

Henry Eliot TS Eliot’s elder brother and confidant, based in America, like all his family (they had four surviving sisters).

Vivien/Vivienne Eliot, née Haigh-Wood Always a fragile personality, Vivien (her favoured spelling) Eliot’s health deteriorated radically after her marriage in 1915. In the early years she encouraged and inspired Eliot’s poetry, but by the end of 1925 she had to be sent to several institutions to try to regain her physical and mental health. They legally separated in 1933 and she was eventually sent to a psychiatric hospital, staying there until her death in 1947. They never divorced.

Geoffrey Faber Publisher, academic and poet, founded Faber & Gwyer in 1925, which became Faber & Faber in 1929.

Ford Madox Ford Famous for The Good Soldier, the novelist was also, like Eliot, an editor of literary journals.

Dr Hubert Higgins The Eliots’ doctor.

Ellen Kellond The Eliots’ maid from 1918.

John Middleton Murry Novelist, critic and husband of the writer Katherine Mansfield.

Lady Ottoline Morrell Society hostess and literary patron, she was a pivotal figure in Bloomsbury and beyond.

John Quinn Irish-American lawyer and important collector; friend and supporter of Eliot, Yeats, Joyce and Pound.

Ezra Pound The American poet was one of Eliot’s closest friends and collaborators, most famously on The Waste Land.

Mary Lilian, Viscountess Rothermere Funder of The Criterion magazine, which Eliot edited (unpaid), and the wife of the media magnate Lord Rothermere.

Bertrand Russell The philosopher knew Vivien well at the time of her marriage; it’s even been suggested they had an affair. Also a friend of Eliot’s, he supported him when she became ill.

Sydney and Violet Schiff Well-connected artists and close friends of the Eliots, they famously hosted a 1922 dinner for Proust, Joyce, Picasso and Diaghilev. Sydney was a well-known novelist and Violet a talented singer.

Virginia Woolf The novelist and critic was a good friend of the Eliots, even if they stood apart from Bloomsbury.

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