Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

A stunning gift edition of this much-loved classic, with illustrations from Nicolas Bentley.

Cats! Some are sane, and some are mad. Some are good, and some are bad. The original Old Possum's illustrations have been lovingly restored and are showcased in this beautiful new hardback edition, perfect for children and Eliot aficionados alike. These lovable cat poems were written by T.S. Eliot for his godchildren and continue to delight children and grown-ups. The collection inspired the musical Cats! and features Macavity, Mr. Mistoffelees, and Growltiger!

Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1888. He was educated at Harvard, at the Sorbonne in Paris, and at Merton College, Oxford. His early poetry was profoundly influenced by the French symbolists, especially Baudelaire and Laforgue. In his academic studies, he specialized in philosophy and logic. His doctoral thesis was on F.H. Bradley. He settled in England in 1915, the year in which he married Vivienne Haigh-Wood and also met his contemporary Ezra Pound for the first time. After teaching for a year or so, he joined Lloyds Bank in the City of London in 1917, the year in which he published his first volume, Prufrock and Other Observations. In 1919, Poems was hand-printed by Leonard and Virginia Woolf. His first collection of essays, The Sacred Wood, appeared in 1920. His most famous work, The Waste Land, was published in 1922, the same year as James Joyce's Ulysses.