Inventions Of The March Hare: Poems 1909-1917

This extraordinary trove of previously unpublished early works includes drafts of poems such as “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” as well as ribald verse and other youthful curios. “Perhaps the most significant event in Eliot scholarship in the past twenty-five years” (New York Times Book Review). Edited by Christopher Ricks.

Compiled and annotated by renowned critic Christopher Ricks, this essential collection for any reader of T. S. Eliot presents:

• Unpublished Early Works: Discover dozens of poems T. S. Eliot himself called "unpublishable," including the ribald verse and youthful curiosities excised from his original notebook.
• Prufrock in Progress: Trace the evolution of a masterpiece through early drafts of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," including the long-lost section, "Prufrock’s Pervigilium."
• French Symbolist Influence: See the direct impact of poets like Jules Laforgue and Tristan Corbière on Eliot’s developing voice, meticulously detailed in the editor’s notes.
• Definitive Literary Criticism: Explore the full context of these poems with Christopher Ricks’s extensive preface and annotations, a major event in literary history.