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

[Rich Lowenthal]

Samuel Beckett pointed out that "T Eliot is toilet spelt backwards" in a 
1937 letter.

Rich Lowenthal
richlowenthal at comcast.net


------ Original Message ------
>From "ADSGarson O'Toole" 
<00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
To ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Date 1/5/2026 11:14:34
Subject Palindrome Origin: Was It Eliot's Toilet I Saw?

>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
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org