[Ads-l] Palindrome Origin: Was It Eliot's Toilet I Saw?

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

I was asked to explore anagrams and palindromes associated with T. S.
Eliot. Here is an overview of what I found with dates and
attributions:

1938: toilets – anagram of T. S. Eliot in a book by Gloria Goddard and
Clement Wood
1953: toilet – T. Eliot spelled backwards from J. L. Thompson
1962: toilest – T. S. Eliot spelled backwards from Vladimir Nabokov
1969: Was it Eliot's toilet I saw? –  palindrome from Tom Congdon
1975: litotes – anagram of T. S. Eliot attributed to W. H. Auden

Here is a link to the Quote Investigator article which presents further details:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2026/01/05/eliot-toilet/

The 2015 book "Let's Talk in English: A Practical Guide to Speaking
Fluent English" by Manish Gupta makes some interesting claims, but I
was unable to find any substantive supporting evidence:

[Begin excerpt from Manish Gupta's book]
The only reason T. S. Eliot (Thomas Stearns Eliot), the Nobel
Prize-winning essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social
critic, and 'one of the twentieth century's major poets' insisted on
his middle initial, was that he was painfully aware that: 'My name is
only an anagram of toilets.' As a young adult, Eliot felt so
embarrassed by this association that he occasionally signed his name
as T. Stearns Eliot. A famous palindrome, 'Was it Eliot’s toilet I
saw?' may have added to his grief, though I am not sure if it was
coined during his time.
[End excerpt]

Feedback and illuminating citations would be welcome.
Garson O'Toole
QuoteInvestigator.com

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