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What is a Classic? by T. S. Eliot

About the Item

First Edition, Second Impression. of An address delivered before the Virgil Society on the 16th of October 1944. London: Faber and Faber, 1945. 8vo; 8 1/4 x 5 3/8 inches (218 x 135 mm); 32 pp., printed on heavy laid paper, lower edges uncut. Bright blue/turquoise cloth boards, gilt lettering on spine, light bumping on corners and tail of spine. Cream dust jacket printed in black and red, price clipped, a little thumbed and faded, extremities of dust jacket frayed with small chips at head and tail of spine panel. Bookseller ticket pasted inside front cover, Melbourne, Australia. [Gallup A45b] Near fine in Very good dust-jacket. This is the text of the first Annual Address to the Virgil Society, of which T. S. Eliot was the First President, 1943/44. Eliot sets out to define that the classic is a work that reflects the maturity of a culture. Indeed, he argues that “[a] classic can occur only when a civilization is mature; when a language and a literature are mature; and it must be the work of a mature mind.” From the estate of Robert Cecil Bald (1901 – 1965), an Australian scholar of English Literature, who moved to the US to teach at Cornell University in 1937 and was then a professor at the University of Chicago from 1952 to 1965
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 8.5 in (21.59 cm)Width: 5.75 in (14.61 cm)Depth: 0.5 in (1.27 cm)
  • Materials and Techniques:
  • Place of Origin:
  • Period:
  • Date of Manufacture:
    1950
  • Condition:
    Wear consistent with age and use.
  • Seller Location:
    Middletown, NY
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: BH11291stDibs: LU8340235460792

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Located in Middletown, NY
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Two Typed Letters Signed (TLS) by T. S. Eliot
Located in Middletown, NY
Two one-page letters on Faber & Faber stationery, SIGNED by T. S. Eliot. The first, dated 1 December 1949 is double sided, 10 1/4 x 8 inches (266 x 204 mm) in envelope 4 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches (110 x 133 mm). The second is dated 23 August 1950, one sided, 8 x 6 7.8 inches (204 x 174 mm) in envelope 4 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches (110 x 133 mm). Typed in black and red ink, central vertical and horizontal folds, with no sign of wear. The accompanying envelopes show minor signs of wear and the back flap of the first envelope is partially torn. Fine. These two typewritten letters were addressed to Robert Cecil Bald (1901 – 1965), an Australian scholar of English Literature, who taught at Cornell University starting in 1937 and then at the University of Chicago from 1952 to 1965. They attest to a cordial exchange between a poet and a scholar, and the rich network of contacts that Eliot had both as an author and as the long-time editorial director at Faber & Faber in London (1925-1965). In the first letter, dated 1 December 1949 with a Cornell University address, Eliot declines an offer...
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