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“LET US GO THEN, YOU AND I…”: EXTREMELY RARE SIGNED FIRST EDITION OF ELIOT’S PRUFROCK, HIS FIRST BOOK AND “THE BIRTH OF MODERN POETRY IN ENGLISH”

ELIOT, T.S. Prufrock and Other Observations. London: The Egoist Ltd., 1917. 12mo, original stiff buff paper wrappers lettered in black; pp. 40. Housed in a custom cloth chemise.

Rare first edition of T.S. Eliot’s first book, one of only 500 copies printed, in the original fragile paper wrappers, boldly signed by Eliot on the title page.

One cannot overestimate the significance of this slender volume; this was the first great volume of poetry from a writer who literally transformed English poetry. Copies of this fragile volume are exceedingly rare—signed copies are extraordinarily so. Only 500 copies were printed, and in 1920 the few remaining copies were autographed by Eliot and offered for sale during the next two years (Gallup). The scarcity of signed copies of Prufrock may also have resulted from Eliot’s initial uncertainties about the quality of the work (he was 22 when he wrote it) and the lukewarm reception it received. These hesitations may have understandably quashed his willingness to sign copies. “The guiding spirit behind Eliot’s first book of poetry had been that of Ezra Pound. He first broached the idea and, because of the worries and fatigue which preoccupied Eliot, organized and collected the material which is contained within the volume? It was not easy to find a publisher? Pound took the typescript to Harriet Shaw Weaver of the Egoist. He told her, in confidence, that he would raise the money for the printing of the book if she would allow him to use her imprint. She agreed (in fact, the money came largely from Dorothy Pound, although Eliot was not to know this)” (Ackroyd, 79). “His first important publication, and the first masterpiece of ‘modernism’ in English, was ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.’ Nothing like the first three lines of ‘Prufrock’ had previously appeared in English poetry” (Britannica). In addition to the famous title poem, the work contains some of Eliot’s finest poems: “The Portrait of a Lady,” “Preludes,” and “Rhapsody on a Windy Night,” among others. Gallup A1. Sackton A1. Connolly, Modern Movement 30a. Booklabel of  author and bibliographer Simon Nowell-Smith, a renowned collector of 19th- and 20th-century English poetry who served as Secretary of the London Library and President of the Bibliographical Society during the middle of the 20th century.

A most desirable unrestored about-fine copy of this modern masterpiece, exceptionally rare signed.