Ask most educated Americans what they know about T.S. Eliot, and they'll tell you he's a poet. And certainly that was his biggest claim to fame.

    But in addition, the American-born Englishman (he settled there at 25) was a critic, essayist, and playwright. Some of his critical works were gathered in a 1932 volume called "Selected Essays, 1917-1932."

    Containing 33 pieces, it covers a range of authors from the very well-known (Shakespeare, Dante, William Blake) to the less-known (Charles Whibley, F. H. Bradley).

    But the first essay in the book is likely the best-known today. Titled "Tradition and the Individual Talent," it was written in 1917 and concerns itself with the relationship between a poet (but it could be any creative writer) and the literary tradition that precedes him or her. In this sense, it addresses what we have talked about here before, the "great conversation" between the writers of the great books.

    The essay was originally published in a magazine, and then in an earlier collection of Eliot's essays called "The Sacred Wood," published in 1920. In that volume, it did not yet hold pride of place, but by 1932, the essay had taken on a greater significance and led the pack.

    Here Eliot describes the process by which the poet participates in his or her tradition: "What is to be insisted upon is that the poet must develop or procure the consciousness of the past and that he should continue to develop this consciousness throughout his career. What happens is a continual surrender of himself as he is at the moment to something which is more valuable. The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality."

    Of course, there is much in this concept to disagree with. Some would say that the very job of the poet is to develop his or her personal viewpoint, often in opposition to the tradition in which he or she works. Nevertheless, whether in "self-sacrifice" or in resistance, the artist cannot ignore the milieu in which his or her work is developed.

    Vocabulary: Which word above means:

    1. was in front of all the others

    2. comes before

    3. giving up of one's own interests or desires

    4. wide variety

    5. snuffing out, killing

    6. reason for being well-known

    7. most important position

    8. acquire, get

    9. one who examines something closely and evaluates it

    10. social environment

    ANSWERS: 1. led the pack 2. precedes 3. self-sacrifice 4. range 5. extinction 6. claim to fame 7. pride of place 8. procure 9. critic 10. milieu