1941T.S. Eliot published The Dry Salvages.People and Communities, Arts and Culture, Literary History, Notable People

Eliot came with his family to their summer home in Gloucester from the age of five until he went off for his year of study in Paris. After graduating from Harvard, he paid a few short visits to Gloucester on his rare trips back home. He learned to sail here and became very familiar with the waters surrounding the island. Gloucester is referenced a great deal in Eliot’s work–both literally and figuratively. The Dry Salvages, the third poem in the Four Quartets, is named after a rock formation off the coast of Rockport near Straitsmouth Island.

Henry Eliot, T.S. Eliot’s brother, donated two copies of the poem to the Sawyer Free Library.