Famous as an accomplished poet, T. S. Eliot was also the author of some highly important literary criticism. First published in 1920, The Sacred Wood collects 13 of Eliot’s early critical essays. He intended them to be a statement of his principles for literary achievement. These concepts—and the works that Eliot wrote after setting out his principles—inspired many major poets of the twentieth century. Some wanted to imitate him, while many others looked to disagree with him. But few since can be said to have fully escaped Eliot’s influence.