Eliot, T. S. | First edition of Eliot's first book

Property from the Robert S Brown Collection

Eliot, T. S. 

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

8vo. Publisher's printed buff wrappers; covers lightly tanned, front hinge starting, small chip to tail of backstrip, and edge of rear wrapper. Housed in a morocco-backed clamshell case.

First edition of Eliot's first book, a superior copy of "something quite new in English verse" (Connolly) 

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. 

REFERENCE:

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

PROVENANCE:

Donald G. Drapkin (his sale, Christie's New York, 29 June 2005, lot 112)