Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.

'When you notice a cat in profound meditation...'. Eliot, who admired Edward Lear, had always been attracted by the form of nonsense verse and his catty verses about Macavity, Rum Tum Tigger and Growltiger were well-known to the Faber and Morley children (of the publishers) and were originally written for them. Apart from Eliot's own fondness for (and ownership of) cats, such as George Pushdragon, it is also interesting to note that his father liked drawing cats as a pastime.

'Ezra Pound used to call Eliot 'Old Possum', which was no doubt meant as an endearment term. But it is also quite poignant as far as Eliot's reputedly evasive (or even 'shifty') character is concerned. It refers to American marsupials, Opossums that are active at night and live in trees; '[it] shams death in order to escape predators.' (Ackroyd)

The book found a much wider audience when in 1981 Andrew Lloyd Webber turned it into the hit musical Cats.

First edition; 4to (223 170 mm); publisher's yellow cloth boards, spine lettered in red and upper cover with pictorial design by the author stamped in red, light dust-soling and stain to lower edge of upper board; publisher's yellow dust-jacket designed by Eliot and printed in black, toned, soiled and worn, chipper at extremities with loss to head of spine into 'Old', otherwise unclipped, unrestored and internally bright and near-fine.

Gallup A34a.