WASTE LAND: It wasn’t the biggest news event of 1976 – that
honor probably would have gone to the U.S. bicentennial – but for
poetry lovers, especially in Bradford, it was front-page news.

The news, in this case, was made by Dr. Joseph Jay Rubin, a Penn
State professor, who advanced the theory that “The Wasteland” –
poet T.S. Eliot’s 1922 masterpiece about the cultural and social
malaise after World War I – had a local connection.

Rubin’s theory was that T. Edward Hanley – Bradford millionaire
art collector, and, perhaps, most famously, husband to Tullah
Hanley, one of Bradford’s most colorful residents – was the
“Bradford millionaire” mentioned in the poem.

Previous theories held that the reference was to a Bradford,
England, millionaire. But Rubin said that would be ignoring primary
evidence – in this case, that Eliot was a Harvard schoolmate of
Hanley.

All of this was unearthed recently by Jackie Jones, who brought
in copies of some 30-year-old newspaper articles that summarized
Rubin’s theory.

The exact lines from the poem are as follows: “A small house
agent’s clerk, with one bold stare,/One of the low on whom
assurance sits/As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire.”

Prior to Rubin’s theory, most scholars had interpreted the line
as a reference to the manufacturers of Bradford, England, who
profited from World War I industry.

Rubin noted, as further evidence, that the Yorkshire city had
few millionaires and, as an American transplant in England, Eliot
had been familiar with the discovery of oil in McKean County in
1874.

Tullah Hanley, the article noted, agreed with Rubin’s
theory.

Another article Jones brought in – this one from the Sunday
Bulletin (no city noted on the copy) – featured a quote from
friends of Hanley, who also thought it referred to him.

The Bulletin’s reporter noted that no Bradford residents were
found who could remember Hanley mentioning his days at Harvard or
his famous roommate.

Plenty of scholars weighed in, however. The Bulletin article
quotes Dr. Daniel Hoffman, a professor of English literature at the
University of Pennsylvania, who said the overall poem’s impact was
what was important.

“The millionaire is a self-elevated vulgarian no matter which
Bradford he comes from,” Hoffman told the reporter.

Eliot himself may have settled the matter in one of his quotes
that said a poem should first be enjoyed before being
understood.