 First edition cover | |
| Author | T. S. Eliot |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Light poetry |
Publication date | 5 October 1939[1] |
| Media type | |
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939) is a collection of whimsicallight poems byT. S. Eliot aboutfelinepsychology andsociology, published byFaber and Faber. It serves as the basis forAndrew Lloyd Webber's 1981 musicalCats.
Eliot wrote the poems in the 1930s and included them, under his assumed name "Old Possum", in letters to his godchildren. Eliot tried to persuade the poetRalph Hodgson to illustrate the poems but failed.[2]They were collected and published in 1939, with cover illustrations by the author, and quickly re-published in 1940, illustrated in full byNicolas Bentley. They have also been published in versions illustrated byEdward Gorey (1982),Axel Scheffler (2009) and Rebecca Ashdown (2014).[3]
The contents ofOld Possum's Book of Practical Cats, along with the names of the featured cats where appropriate, are:
In 1954, English composerAlan Rawsthorne set six of the poems in a work for speaker and orchestra entitledPractical Cats, which was recorded soon afterwards, with the actorRobert Donat as the speaker. At about the same time another English composer,Humphrey Searle, composed another narrated piece based on the poems, using flute, piccolo, cello and guitar. This work,Two Practical Cats, consists of settings of the poems about Macavity and Growltiger.
The best-known musical adaptation of the poems isAndrew Lloyd Webber's musicalCats, which was premiered in the West End of London in 1981 and on Broadway in 1982. It became thelongest-running Broadway show in history until it was overtaken by another musical by Lloyd Webber,The Phantom of the Opera. As well as the characters found in the book,Cats introduces several additional characters from Eliot's unpublished drafts, most notablyGrizabella. The musical was adapted into adirect-to-video film in 1998.[4] Afeature film adaptation ofCats was released on 20 December 2019.[5] As of December, 2019, the feature film's production cost was $100 million but only grossed $38.3 million globally, yielding an approximate $70 million loss.[6]
In the filmLogan's Run, Logan and Jessica meet an old man in the ruins of the United StatesSenate Chamber during their search for Sanctuary. The Old Man has many cats and refers to the poem "The Naming of Cats", explaining that each cat has three names: one common, one fancy and one that only the cat knows. Later the Old Man refers to one cat in particular, "Gus", short for "Asparagus", and goes on to recite parts of "Macavity: the Mystery Cat".
The British rock bandMungo Jerry derived their name from the book's poem "Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer".[7]
The Tombs, a bar and restaurant inWashington, D.C., is named after the fictional establishment mentioned in the poem "Bustopher Jones: The Cat About Town".[8]
On 5 June 2009,The Times revealed that in 1937 Eliot had composed a 34-line poem entitled "Cows" for the children of Frank Morley, a friend who, like Eliot, was a director of the publishing company Faber and Faber.[9] Morley's daughter, Susanna Smithson, uncovered the poem as part of theBBC Two programmeArena: T.S. Eliot, broadcast that night as part of the BBC Poetry Season.[10]
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