ELIOT, T. S.
The Waste Land. New York, Boni and Liveright, [1923].
8vo, pp. [vi], 9–64; stamp-numbered 930 of 1000 copies on copyright page, deckle edges; a few minor smudges, nonetheless a very good copy in the publisher’s black cloth, front board and spine lettered in gilt; without the dustjacket as often, spine a little sunned, boards lightly rubbed.
First edition, second impression, numbered 930 of 1000 copies.
Arguably the most important English poem of the twentieth century, The Waste Land had long been envisaged by Eliot but was precipitated by his nervous breakdown in 1921 as well as his disintegrating marriage and the atmosphere of the post-War years. ‘Assembled out of dramatic vignettes based on Eliot’s London life, The Waste Land’s extraordinary intensity stems from a sudden fusing of diverse materials into a rhythmic whole of great skill and daring’ (ODNB).
The poem was first published in The Criterion (October 1922) and The Dial (November), with Eliot adding the dedication to Pound and the extensive Notes in the first edition of December of the same year. Pace the colophon’s reference to ‘the Second Edition’, the present copy is in fact from the second impression of the first edition, with the missing ‘a’ in ‘mountain’ in line 339 (p. 41).
Connolly 30(b); Gallup A6(b).