Oh for Christ's sake, T. S. Eliot is perhaps the best poet this benighted country ever produced, and to dismiss him, as some on this thread seem to do, is beyond repugnant. Yes, I've read After Strange Gods--I'm not only aware of it, but I've actually read that paean to damn near everything I detest, including his praise of the South at the expense of the North. BUT... perhaps part of the reason Eliot suppressed a book that is every biut as vile as its reputation makes it out to be is that, perhaps he... regretted it, maybe? Coupled with that, his break with the French Right at the time of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia was essentially on an anti-imperialist basis. In addition to which, even at the time that Eliot was writing After Strange Gods, he was actively promoting the work of one Stephen Spender, who in his book on Eliot, states that he never noticed a hint of bigotry from Eliot, despite Spender being a part-Jewish bisexual Communist. I say this not to justify Eliot's flaws, but merely to say that the story with him is far, far more complex.
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