TS Eliot's poem ‘The Waste Land' might have given him international stardom. However, after one year, year after it was published he was broke, and on the verge of a breakdown. His personal life had turned into a nightmare despite winning accolades for his literary work.

A series of newly published letters have revealed the barren condition of T.S.Eliot. He was forced to work for Lloyds bank by day and edit Criterion, a quarterly magazine, by night. The work and the worry have taken 10 years off my life.

On March 12, 1923, he wrote: "I am now in the midst of a terrific crisis. I wish to heaven that I had never taken up the Criterion. It has been a great expense to me. I have not got a penny out of it."

	I am ashamed to have sent you such badly written articles.

The workload, and worry about money had shaken his confidence in writing. Eliot refused to give up his bank job and wrote on April 26, 1923: "The bank is a secure job for life, with a pension at 60, a year's salary and a pension for my wife in the event of my death."

On December 31, 1923, he said: "I am ashamed to have sent you such badly written articles. I must stop writing and read and think for a long time before recommencing."