The literary achievements T. S. Eliot, as a poet, critic and publisher, had made with The Criterion (1922-1939), mostly a quarterly journal, at Faber & Faber, are supposed to be a good example by which we can examine the process of human studies in terms of production, consumption, and distribution of poetry. Lady Rothermere was a patron of the arts, including Eliot’s publishing activities for the commentary journal of The Criterion, yet she was not happy working with him for a long time. The response of Lady Rothermere to the first publication of The Criterion, by Eliot as publisher in October 1922, was critically and cynically ‘dull’; Ezra Pound considered such a comment by Lady Rothermere on Eliot’s works “intentionally offensive” in a letter to Eliot in 1922. Lady Rothermere pursued entertainment in cheap and vulgar literature for the public, different from Eliot, who wanted to publish an elite journal, intellectual and sincere in literary commentary, on his own. Nonetheless, the contribution of Lady Rothermere on Eliot’s works in The Criterion casts a great shadow, by supporting human studies and by the promoting popularity of humanities, into the early literary history of the 20th century. As a matter of fact, Lady Rothermere turned out to be an essential patron for Eliot’s literary activities in the 1920s, yet her active passion and involvement in Eliot’s publication of The Criterion appeared to be a considerable threat to his literary life in poetry and criticism.

• 양병현(상지대학교) | Byung-Hyun Yang