by T. S. Eliot
Harcourt Brace press advertisement: “T. S. Eliot’s friends often receive anonymous poems (which they can usually identify), and very often these poems concern cats—not dear little cats but practical cats. The poems about cats have now been collected for the benefit of a wider audience of Mr. Eliot’s friends. PRACTICAL CATS. There are a few cats of Mr. Eliot’s own design on the jacket.”
US 1939 jacket material: “Mr. T. S. Eliot’s intimate friends receive from time to time typewritten verses which are apparently anonymous but which are always identifiable. The poems which concern cats are presented here.”
Hayward acknowledged the illustrated Practical Cats on 20 Nov 1940. On the title page: “NICOLAS BENTLEY | drew the pictures”; these included full colour plates. TSE to Hayward, 25 Nov: “I am glad you can speak so favourably of the Bentley drawings: they were rather a shock to me at first, but I am beginning to get used to them. Bentley’s intuition of the feline is not mine; but the only distinct failures now seem to me to be Macavity and Gus. He is hardly the perfect Tenniel for my purpose, if I may say that without appearing presumptious.” (In Mar 1942 Hayward commented to Frank Morley that Mervyn Peake would have been a better choice.) TSE to Polly Tandy, 12 Dec 1940: “I am glad you find that the illustrated Cats improve with acquaintance, they have done so with me. I didnt like them at all at first, and I still think Macavity and Gus are a Pity. You are right, of course, about Contemplation: but perhaps we know too much about Cats to be quite in touch with vulgar opinion, and perhaps something a little more popular is wanted.” (The plate illustrating The Naming of Cats—“His mind is engaged in rapt contemplation”—appears to show a cat with a sore head.) The first paperback edition, in 1962, “with decorations by NICOLAS BENTLEY”, retained the “tail pieces” but not the colour plates, which were reserved for the hardback until 1976.
“Books by T. S. Eliot” flyer, c. 1948: “This is a collection of poems about Cats which were written for the amusement and instruction of Mr. Eliot’s particular young friends. It has also delighted other young people, and elder folk who appreciate virtuosity in jingling. The cheaper edition is decorated only by cover designs by the author; the edition illustrated by Nicolas Bentley gives a visual realisation of Mr. Eliot’s Cats and their capers, which will supply the defect of imagination of the least imaginative reader.”
[Poems II 1–35 · Textual History II 621–41]
7. TSE’S RECORDING
To Frederick C. Packard Jr., initiator of Vocarium Records at Harvard, 22 Nov 1955: “True, I have never recorded any ‘Cats’. Other people have wished me to do so, but I have not given any encouragement for the reason that there are not very many of these poems, and I am afraid that a recording might interfere with the sales of the book, from which I derive more profit · · · What I should be prepared to do, would be to record two or three of the cats for your archives, on the understanding that no record would be sold, and that no public use would be made of the recording.”
The whole book was recorded in 1957 as T. S. Eliot reads Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, under the auspices of the British Council; released by Argo in 1959. Recording sleeve: “Apology. We had prepared erudite notes for this record, but they appear to have been intercepted on the way to the printers by—Macavity.”
Additionally, Macavity: The Mystery Cat was recorded by TSE in Nov 1959 in Chicago as part of a celebration of Poetry magazine.
Other recordings include the reading by Robert Donat, with music by Alan Rawsthorne, released in 1956, and a reading by John Gielgud and Irene Worth released in 1983.
*
Practical Cats has been adapted to musical purposes more than once. New York Times, 27 Aug 1954: “Although there is no new T. S. Eliot play this year in Edinburgh, the first musical novelty of the festival, Practical Cats, depends largely on the poet for its success. Described as an ‘entertainment for Children’, this work consists of six settings from Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats preceded by a brief overture. Mr Eliot’s verses were brilliantly declaimed by Alvar Lidell, well known British broadcaster, while the full-scale orchestral accompaniment was performed by the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Scottish Orchestra under Ian Whyte.”
The musical Cats by Andrew Lloyd-Webber opened in 1981 in London and in 1982 on Broadway, running for 21 and 18 years respectively.
[Poems II 1–35 · Textual History II 621–41]
8. APROPOS OF PRACTICAL CATS BY VALERIE ELIOT
(The following note from Cats: The Book of the Musical is taken from the version prepared for the American production. The version in the original British printing of 1981 was shorter and not illustrated by drawings.)
In an early poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T. S. Eliot likened the yellow fog of St. Louis to a cat
that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep …
He also remarked that “The great thing about cats is that they possess two qualities to an extreme degree—dignity and comicality”.
“I am glad you have a cat”, TSE wrote to his godson, Tom Faber, on 20th January 1931, “but I do not believe it is so remarkable a cat as My cat … There never was such a Lilliecat.
ITS NAME IS
JELLYORUM
and its one Idea is to be
USEFUL!!
FOR Instance
IT STRAIGHTENS THE PICTURES
IT DOES THE GRATES
LOOKS INTO THE LARDER TO SEE WHAT’S NEEDED —
AND INTO THE DUSTBIN TO SEE THAT NOTHING’S WASTED — and yet
[Poems II 1–35 · Textual History II 621–41]
IT IS SO LILLIE AND SMALL THAT
IT CAN SIT ON MY EAR!
(Of course I had to draw my Ear rather
Bigger than it Is to get
the Lilliecat onto it).
I would tell you about our Cus Cus Praps except that I can’t Draw
Dogs so well as Cats, Yet; but I mean to … ”
This was the first occasion on which Old Possum revealed himself. When Tom was four TSE suggested that all Pollicle Dogs and Jellicle Cats should be
INVITED to Come
With a Flute & a Fife & a Fiddle & Drum
With a Fiddle, a Fife, & a Drum & a Tabor
To the Birthday Party of THOMAS ERLE FABER!
Then there was “a very Grand Cat … a Persian Prince and it is Blue because it has Blue Blood, and its name was MIRZA MURAD ALI BEG but I said that was too Big a Name for such a Small Flat, so its name is wiskuscat. But it is sometimes called The MUSICAL BOX because it makes a noise like singing and sometimes COCKALORUM because it Looks like one. (Have you ever seen a Cockalorum? Neither have I)”. In April 1932 Tom learnt that “the Porpentine cat has been in bed with Ear Ache so the Pollicle Dog stopped At Home to Amuse it by making Cat’s Cradles”.
TSE was always inventing suitable cat names, as he was often asked for them by friends and strangers. I remember “Noilly Prat” (an elegant cat); “Carbucketry” (a knock-about cat); “Tantomile” (a witch’s cat); he also liked “Pouncival” with its Morte d’Arthur flavour, and “Sillabub”, a mixture of silly and Beelzebub.
Most of the poems were written between 1936 and 1938. “I have done a new cat, modelled on the late Professor Moriarty but he doesn’t seem very popular: too sophisticated perhaps …” TSE wrote to Frank Morley. This will surprise today’s many admirers of Macavity. Although he confided to Enid Faber on 8th March 1938 that “The Railway Cat (L.M.S.) is rather stuck”, a week later the poem was finished. Skimbleshanks is based on Kipling’s The Long Trail just as The Marching Song o
f the Pollicle Dogs was written to the tune of The Elliots of Minto. Grizabella the Glamour Cat is an unpublished fragment of which only the last eight lines were written because TSE realised she was developing along the lines of Villon’s La Belle Heaulmière who fell on evil days and he felt it would be too sad for children.
About this time, when he was driving to the country, he and the driver began discussing their respective dogs. The chauffeur wishing to make clear that his was a mongrel said, “He is not what you would call a consequential dog.” This so delighted TSE that he resolved to write a book of Consequential Dogs to match the Practical Cats. But, alas, it was never done. During the war when he was living with friends in Surrey he remarked of the temporary absence of a noisy pug, “When does ‘… that fatall and perfidious Bark | Built in th’eclipse, and rigg’d with curses dark …’ return to us?” (Milton). [Lycidas 100–101.]
Although Faber & Faber announced “Mr. Eliot’s book of Pollicle Dogs and Jellicle Cats” in their 1936 Spring catalogue, TSE had run into difficulties over his general approach. “The idea of the volume was to have different poems on appropriate subjects · · · recited by the Man in White Spats · · · At the end they all go up in a balloon, self, Spats, and dogs and cats.
[Poems II 1–35 · Textual History II 621–41]
Up up up past the Russell Hotel,
Up up up to the Heaviside Layer.”
Three more years, as his publisher put it, brought “a growing perception that it would be impolite to wrap cats up with dogs” and the realisation that the book would be exclusively feline · · ·
Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats was published in England on 5th October 1939 in an edition of 3005 copies at 3/6d with TSE’s drawings on the front cover and the dust-wrapper. He was nervous about its reception. His verse play The Family Reunion had appeared in March and The Idea of a Christian Society was due in three weeks. “It is intended for a NEW public”, he informed Geoffrey Faber, “but I am afraid I cannot dispense with the old one.” He need not have worried. “Cats are giving general satisfaction”, the Sales Manager reported shortly afterwards, while the Manchester Guardian said they partook “of the infinite variety of human nature”. Today they are a minor classic and have been translated into a dozen languages · · ·
P.S. Whenever he was unwell or could not sleep, TSE would recite the verses under his breath.
————
Preface] TSE to Enid Faber, 12 July 1939:
Now about the dedication of Cats. I had thought of putting something like the following:
The Author wishes to thank several friends for their suggestions, criticism and encouragement: particularly Mr. T. E. Faber, Miss Alison Tandy, Miss Susan Wolcott, and the Man in White Spats.
(Some two or three were composed for the second, and the third is a small American cousin who thinks that they were written for her). Then it occurred to me that Tom has arrived at years of maturity at which he might not be pleased by having his name associated with anything so juvenile. In that case, the dedication will be omitted altogether. My second doubt was whether I ought to include Susanna: but as she was not the cause of any of the poems, and so far as I know has never seen them, and I don’t know whether she would like them, I don’t want to. And the form would have to be one of straight dedication instead of acknowledgement.
[Poem II 3 · Textual History II 624–25]
the Man in White Spats: although Susanna Morley believed that this was her father (BBC Arena, 2009), Hayward’s copy of the first British edition is inscribed “to John Hayward Esqr—the original Man in White Spats—only begetter of Bustopher Jones and Skimbleshanks, this from his obt. oblgd. servt. O.P. 3. x. 39”. (The front of the jacket is initialled “O.P. fecit”, referring to the drawings.) Hayward’s copy of the illustrated edition is also inscribed: “for the Man in White Spats: John Hayward from T.S.E. 14. 11. 40”. Smart 102: “When Hayward told him of his youthful infatuation with Dagmar [Erhardt] and how he had chosen a pair of his father’s white spats to impress her, these became fixed in Eliot’s imagination · · · Eliot wrote when Hayward sent him his cat sketches. (In fact Hayward was very disappointed when they were turned down for the dust-jacket, signing himself, ‘l’homme aux guêtres blancs’.)” However, the verse letter I am asked by my friend, the Man in White Spats (sent to Alison Tandy, see “Uncollected Poems”) mentions “his Budgerigars and his prize Cockatoo”, which suggests Ralph Hodgson, who was addressed as “The Man in White Spats” in a letter to him of 28 Oct 1938 (see Harding, Dreaming of Babylon 157). The copy of How to Pick a Possum sent to Alison Tandy, 12 Sept 1937, is subscribed “THE MAN IN WHITE SPATS”. So this was a compound dandy. Punch had given its opinion About White Spats on 22 July 1925: “Some men, it is true, wear white spats because of their power to arrest attention; and it must be confessed that they have a certain usefulness in this respect. White spats draw the eye of an observer down to the feet, and, though feet are seldom much of an attraction in themselves, there is undoubtedly a type of man whose feet are less trying to the eye than his upper parts.” Jellicle cats (which “are black and white”, Song of the Jellicles 5) often have “white socks”.
The Naming of Cats
OED “Tom” 6: “The male of various beasts and birds; perh. first for a male cat”, with 1791, “Cats .. Of titles obsolete, or yet in use, Tom, Tybert, Roger, Rutterkin, or Puss.” Wyndham Lewis gave a warning in Mr. Zagreus and the Split-Man in Criterion Feb 1924 (Harmon 1976a):
“Never change the barbarous names given by god to each and all,” you read in the spurious AVESTA compiled at Alexandria;
“Because there are names possessing an unutterable efficacity! …”
“Beginning with the stock-in-trade of the Phap: the name you utter is not the name. The UNNAMED is the principle of heaven and of earth. But the name is an abortion and a tyranny: and you do not have to ascend into the sky, with the TAO, or allege anything more than a common cat, for that. Name a cat and you destroy it! ‘Not knowing his name I call him TAO’ · · ·”
The Apes of God (1930) 341
TSE to Polly Tandy, 3 July 1935: “Your news is noted, and I look forward to attempting to photograph the remarkable cats, although I don’t understand why one of them should be called Dolabella. Nevertheless I have always maintained that a cat’s name should have at least 3 syllables, except in exceptional circumstance.” Dolabella is a male character in Antony and Cleopatra. E. Martin Browne recalled another Shakespearean cat: “A few years after The Book of Practical Cats was written, we acquired a female cat of very questionable lineage. My wife, who was at the time playing Hamlet’s mother, christened her Gertrude. When Eliot next came to our flat and met her, he enquired her name. Gertrude would not do: a cat’s name must have at least three syllables · · · I looked at her white ‘shirt-front’ and suggested Ermyntrude as a substitute; this was accepted”, Browne 312. (For “Cats with short names”, see note to The Song of the Jellicles 1.)
TSE’s correspondence with the Tandy family includes undated lists of “some good names” and “some bad names” (BL Add. 71004, fols. 152–53). Since the good include “Blandina”, “Crispiniana” and “Emerentiana”, they are more probably for cats than for daughters.
[Poem II 5 · Textual History II 625]
The Naming of Cats is known first from a letter to TSE’s godson, Tom Faber, 7 Jan 1936 (ts, Valerie Eliot collection):
Dear Tom,
While lying in bed getting better and better,
I hope you’ll have time for perusing this letter,
Inasmuch as my friend, the Man in White Spats,
Asks me to convey
In a personal way
This poem he composed on
THE NAMING OF CATS
The naming of cats is a difficult matter,
It isn’t just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter,
But I tell you, a Cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
> First of all, there’s the name that the servants use daily,
Such as Peter, Alonzo, or Betty or James,
Such as Victor, or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey—
All of them practical everyday names.
There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,
Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:
Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter—
But all of them practical everyday names.
But, I tell you, a Cat needs a name that’s particular,
A name that’s peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep up his ears perpendicular,
Or smooth out his whiskers, or tickle his pride?
Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,
Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Capricopat,
Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum—
Names that never belong to more than one Cat.
But above and beyond, there’s still one name left over,
And that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover—
