Mary and Mr. Eliot: A Sort of Love Story

Mary and Mr. Eliot is a twin portrait of T. S. Eliot and its author, the formidable Mary Trevelyan.

In 1938 T. S. Eliot, already “a Classic in his lifetime,” struck up a friendship with Mary Trevelyan. This passionately curious woman, an intrepid traveler who, like Eliot, was deeply involved in the affairs of the Church of England, served as the warden of the Student Movement House, mere yards from the poet and editor’s office at Faber and Faber.

Their relationship was domestic rather than a...