Eliot, T. S. | "Prufrock and Other Observations," first edition

Eliot, T. S.

Prufrock and Other Observations. London: The Egoist Ltd, 1917

8vo. Publisher's printed buff wrappers; pencil ownership signature erased from half title, wrappers and endleaves toned (as often), small chips to tips of spine and one edge, one corner creased, faint staining to rear cover, text block sitting a little high, possibly re-cased.

First edition of Eliot's first book, a notoriously fragile production.

Parts of the title poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" had appeared in the Harvard Advocate in 1906 while Eliot was still a student. He later read the poem to Ezra Pound in England and Pound arranged for it to be included in the prestigious American journal Poetry in 1915 stating it was "The best poem I have yet had or seen from an American." Initially the manuscript of the collection of poems was turned down by English publishers, but at Pound's insistence, Harriet Shaw Weaver of The Egoist, where Eliot was working as Assistant Editor, printed 500 copies. Although the work was met initially with indifference from the wider public, Eliot's peers recognized the importance of the poems as being "something quite new in English verse" (Connolly). 

REFERENCES:

Gallup A1; Connolly, The Modern Movement 30a; Hayward 33