Dante by T. S. Eliot...

190 x 128 mm. 69, [1] pages. Editorial binding in cardboard, with its original dust jacket, both illustrated by Rex Whitler. Preserved in red chemise and slipcase. A very fine copy. On the title-page oval stamp ‘Faber and Faber Ltd. Office Copy. Not to be taken away'.

Provenance: Thomas Stearn Eliot (1888-1965) to Maurice Haigh-Wood (on the recto of the front flyleaf Eliot's autograph dedication ‘'For Maurice Haigh-Wood with the author's humble compliments. T. S. Eliot); Livio Ambrogio collection.

The original edition of the most famous essay dedicated by the American poet and writer Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965) to Dante's work, published in the editorial series "The Poets on the Poets". As printed in the flap of the dust jacket, "This essay is not an academic 'introduction'; it is a personal account of the way in which the author, over many years, arrived at his understanding and appreciation of Dante. It is written for those who would like to know Dante, and who must begin as Mr. Eliot did, with ‘a traveller's smattering of italian, and a public-school knowledge of Latin'. It traces the process by which such a reader can proceed from enjoyment of single passages towards appreciation of the whole of Dante's work". A very fine copy, gifted by Eliot to Maurice Haigh-Wood, brother of his first wife Vivienne.