Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
London: Faber and Faber, 1939.
First edition of T. S. Eliot's whimsical collection of poems about feline psychology and sociology. Inscribed by the author, though Elliot's name not signed, "To Edith with love / Christmas 1939". A warm and personal inscription. Though impossible to prove, this might be inscribed to avant garde poet Edith Sitwell, one cannot say for certain. Elizabeth Salter in The Last Years of a Rebel: A Memoir Of Edith Sitwell cites a note Sitwell circulated to friends circa 1960, "I've not read Mr. Eliot's Book Of Practical Cats, so can you tell me if it is true that he is the author of these lines? I tort I saw a puddy tat ....I wonder what put it into my head that he is the author?" Bound in publisher's original pale yellow cloth printed in red. Very Good with light soiling to cloth, light wear at extremities with a slight repair at the crown, contents tanned and lightly thumbed. Eliot wrote these poems in the 1930s and included them, under his assumed name "Old Possum", in letters to his godchildren.
Price: $24,000