Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.

London: Faber and Faber Limited,, 1940. From Old Possum to the first audience of his Practical Cats First illustrated edition, first impression, presentation copy, inscribed by the author as Old Possum on the front free endpaper, "to the Tandy Fambley from O.P". The Tandy family included Alison Tandy, one of the dedicatees of the book. Eliot uses his own word "fambley" which is a variant spelling identified in "The Old Gumbie Cat". The seventh line of "The Old Gumbie Cat" reads "And when all the family's in bed and asleep". Ricks and McCue identify "fambly" as a variant spelling and Eliot frequently used it in his letters to the Tandy family. Eliot initially met Geoffrey Tandy, a writer, broadcaster and scientist who worked at the Natural History Museum, in a pub. As their friendship deepened, Eliot frequently visited the Tandys and they also kept up a regular correspondence. Throughout the 1930s, the family would be the first audience on which Eliot tested out the cat poems, both in letters and on visits to the family's Hampshire cottage. In addition, Geoffrey Tandy would be the first to present the cat poems to a wider public, as he read parts of Practical Cats on BBC radio on the Christmas Day of 1937, two years before the book was published. Octavo. Original cream cloth, spine lettered in red, pictorial block of two dancing cats to front cover. With dust jacket. Housed in a custom red cloth box. With numerous colour and monochrome illustrations by Nicolas Bentley. Spine slightly toned, cloth a touch soiled, mild foxing throughout, text block strained in a couple of places but firm. A very good copy in a lightly toned and soiled jacket with slightly nicked and creased extremities and a couple of minor chips.