ELIOT, T. S.
Four Quartets. New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, [1943].
8vo, pp. [viii], 39, [1 (blank)]; ‘first American edition’ to title verso; edges ever so slightly browned on some leaves, short tear without loss to foot of pp. 17–18 not touching text; else an excellent, fresh copy in the publisher’s black cloth, spine lettered in gilt, white dustjacket printed in black, cream, and grey by Edward McKnight Kauffer, his initials printed at foot of front panel; a few chips and tears to head and foot of jacket.
First edition, first impression, with the edition note in the colophon, one of only 788 copies not destroyed before publication.
Comprising ‘Burnt Norton’ (first published 1936), ‘East Croker’ (1940), ‘The Dry Salvages’ (1941), and ‘Little Gidding’ (1942) – four sombre and mystical meditations, the latter three written against the sirens of the Blitz – Four Quartets ‘for a time displaced The Waste Land as Eliot’s most celebrated work. The British public responded especially to the topical references in the wartime poems and to the tone of Eliot’s public meditation on a shared disaster’ (ODNB).
‘In this first impression, the margins of many pages were incorrect because of faulty imposition of the forms as a result of the use of unskilled war-time labour. The entire impression would have been destroyed except that it was necessary to meet the announced publication date in order to preserve copyright, and consequently 788 copies for review and other purposes were distributed before the corrected impression was ready. On 5 May 1943, the 3377 copies then remaining of the first impression were destroyed and replaced by the second impression of 3500 copies. These do not carry the edition note on the verso of the title-leaf’ (Gallup).
Connolly 92; Gallup A43(a).