Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

T. S. Eliot

ISBN 10: 0151686564 / ISBN 13: 9780151686568

Published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982

About this Item

First Edition, First Printing (thus). Dust jacket and book are clean, dust jacket price not clipped. Has a good binding, no marks or notations. 56 pp. Illustrated by Edward Gorey. Seller Inventory # 227981

Bibliographic Details

Title: Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Publication Date: 1982

Binding: hardcover

Illustrator: Edward Gorey

Condition: Very Good

Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

Edition: First Edition.

About this title

Synopsis:

T.S. Eliot pays tribute to "Mr. Mistoffelees, " "The Run Tum Tugger, " "Macavity: The Mystery Cat, " and a variety of other cats in this engaging collection of humorous poems. Originally composed to amuse Mr. Eliot's intimate friends, to whom they were sent anonymously, these verses have proven irresistible to cat lovers, lovers of nonsense, and admirers of T.S. Eliot throughout the English-speaking world.

Review:

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter, it isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.

The phenomenal worldwide success in the 1980s of the musical Cats refuelled interest in T.S. Eliot's classic Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats on which the stage extravaganza was based. Old Possum's Book, originally published in 1939 and dedicated to Eliot's godchildren, contains a delightful rogues' gallery of felines, including the Rum Tum Tugger cat whose "disobliging ways are a matter of habit", Mr Mistoffelees "The Original Conjuring Cat" and Macavity: The Mystery Cat "the master criminal who can defy the law". Loved by generations of children and adults alike, Old Possum is perhaps most remarkable for having been written almost as an aside, a plaything, by Eliot, as a distraction from the internal religious and philosophical wranglings he charted in Four Quartets.

A warm and witty collection of free-verse poems, which demand to be read aloud and given full dramatic import, this edition of Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats has been reissued by Faber and Faber Limited in a slim pocket-sized edition, with original tongue-in-cheek illustrations by Nicolas Bentley. --Catherine Taylor