Eliot at his most playful
ELIOT, T.S. Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. London: Faber and Faber Limited. 1939.
Square 8vo. Original yellow cloth printed in red on front cover and spine, with yellow dustwrapper printed in black with pictorial designs by the author; pp. [vi], 7-45, [1]; price-clipped wrapper with two marks to front panel, light marginal staining to rear, otherwise a very good, clean copy.
First edition, a notably bright copy, of Eliot’s most popular work.
Eliot composed these whimsical poems during the 1930s, originally sending them – under his assumed name “Old Possum” – in letters to his godchildren. Only 3,005 copies of this first edition were published on 5 October 1939. The collection later provided the inspiration for the Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1981 musical Cats.
Gallup A34a.
#2120157