The Letters of T. S. Eliot Volume 4: 1928-1929

Volume 4 of the Letters of T. S. Eliot brings the poet, critic, editor, and publisher into his forties, documenting a period of anxious and fast-moving professional recovery alongside personal and spiritual consolidation.

Following the withdrawal of financial support by his patron Lady Rothermere, Faber and Gwyer (subsequently Faber and Faber) eventually takes over the responsibility for Eliot's literary periodical, The Criterion. He supplements his income as a fledgling publisher, "just as I did ten years ago," by engaging in reviewing, writing articles, prefaces, lectures, broadcasting talks, and anything else that presents itself.

His work as an editor is internationalist above all else, establishing contact with numerous eminent and emergent writers and thinkers, while also forging connections with European reviews, all of which endeavoured to keep the intellectual blood of Europe circulating throughout the continent.

During this period, Eliot's responsibilities extend to caring for Vivien, who returns home after months in a French psychiatric hospital, a duty he fulfils with anxious fortitude. His personal correspondence with his mother comes to a close following her death in September 1929.