ELIOT, T. S.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

1915. FIRST PRINTING OF THIS POEM in Poetry, A Magazine of Verse published in June of 1915 (Volume VI, No. III), pp. 130-135, small Octavo. First Printing of this Poem, Gallup C18.Let us go then, you and I When the evening is spread out against the skyLike a patient etherized upon a table;Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,The muttering retreatsOf restless nights in one-night cheap hotelsAnd sawdust restaurants with oyster shells:Streets that follow like a tedious argumentOf insidious intentTo lead you to an overwhelming question....Oh, do not ask, "What is it?"Let us go and make our visit…This was the first time that Eliot's poetry was published in a major literary magazine - The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock has become perhaps the most recognized of any modernist verse. The poem shocked the literary establishment of the era; Harold Monro, proprietor of the Poetry Bookshop, passed on the first opportunity to publish the poem, remaking that it was "absolutely inane". Only Eliot's friend Ezra Pound seemed to have realized immediately the greatness of the poem and the talent of the poet. Writing to Harriet Monroe in September of 1914, he remarked: "I was jolly well right about Eliot. He has sent in the best poem I have yet had or seen from an American. PRAY GOD IT BE NOT A SINGLE AND UNIQUE SUCCESS..." However, even Miss Harriet Monroe was uncertain of the poem merits and she held it unpublished for more than eight months. When finally it appeared, howls of protest were heard from all sides. Louis Untermeyer, a key figure in the success of Robert Frost, wrote that Prufrock was "the first piece of English language that utterly stumped me... the muse in a psychopathic ward drinking the stale dregs of revolt." By 1922, his attitude had reversed towards Eliot, because it was in that year as editor of "The Dial" that Untermeyer first published The Wasteland [see the next catalog item] which is generally regarded as the poet's greatest success. Printed paper wrappers; very minor chips to top and bottom of spine; two underlinings with pencil on pp. 136-137. Otherwise this is an almost perfect copy of an incredibly delicate piece. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.

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• bookseller: Athena Rare Books (USA)