Estate / Collection: The Collection of Erica Jong and Ken Burrows

ELIOT, T. S.
Prufrock and Other Observations. London: The Egoist Ltd., 1917. First edition, one of 500 copies printed. Original buff wrappers printed in black, housed in a folding cloth case. 7 1/8 x 4 3/4 inches (18 x 12 cm); 40 pp. A very fine copy of a fragile book, free of restoration, the covers a trifle toned and lightly thumbsoiled around the extremities, a few minor scuffs, some light spotting within.

"Let us go then, you and I..." so begins the title poem of T.S. Eliot's first published book, a masterpiece of the modernist movement. Eliot began Prufrock in 1910 and it was first printed the United States in 1915 in Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. The poem was rejected by several publishers but in June 1917 with the assistance of Ezra Pound Prufrock and Other Observations was printed in 500 copies by The Egoist Press. That same month, Eliot was appointed assistant editor of The Egoist. The poem remains Eliot's most popular. Gallup A1; Connolly, The Modern Movement 30a; Hayward 33.