In 1917, Eliot dedicated to Verdenal his first volume of poetry, Prufrock and Other Observations, and added the Dante epigraph to the 1925 edition:[13] For Jean Verdenal, 1889–1915 mort aux Dardanelles Or puoi la quantitate Comprender dell' amor ch'a te mi scalda, Quando dismento nostra vanitate, Trattando l'ombre come cosa salda.
[15] In this second essay Peter identified the friend as Verdenal and quoted Eliot poems, plays and criticism to defend his position.
[18] In January 1972, as part of a series of letters to the London Times Literary Supplement about Eliot's drafts, G. Wilson Knight made the observation that the so-called "hyacinth girl" was male.
[20] In the early 1970s George Watson made trips to France to learn more about Verdenal from his military record, his family and friends.
[21] James E. Miller, who felt that there was a personal meaning The Waste Land, had his attention drawn to Peter and Knight.
[24] In the biography (covering the years 1888–1922) Miller provided a synopsis of Watson's and Perinot's findings and the contents of Verdenal's letters to Eliot.
[26] Then, in 2011, Perinot published a composite micro-biography of Eliot's French friend, based on previously unpublished documents, such as obituary notices, photographs, letters, and reminiscences of the people who knew Jean Verdenal.