Thomas Stearns Eliot, commonly known as T.S. Eliot, is considered the most influential English poet of the 20th century. He was born in the USA and studied at Harvard, Sorbonne, and Oxford. His early poems were groundbreaking, with works like "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and "The Waste Land" gaining fame. Eliot also wrote critically acclaimed verse dramas and received the Nobel Prize for his contributions to literature.