Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 1888 - 4 January 1965)
The Naming of Cats
The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn’t just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I’m mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
…
Poetry
Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats is a set of poems which offers a somewhat historical perspective of life in early 20th century England. Perspectives from different societal and personal layers of life are represented through the eyes of various cats. The poems were written by T. S. Eliot for his godchildren. As an interesting aside, T. S. Eliot hailed from St. Louis, Missouri, USA, and moved to England in 1914.1 So, in many ways, we explore the world not just through the eyes of the cats, but through the eyes of an outsider explaining the different worlds all found within a contemporary English lifestyle.
Cats Inspired
The poems have gone on to thrill not only generations of children, but to inspire authors and musicians alike. Some famous examples include the British band named after one of Eliot’s cats Mungo Jerry:
Likewise, the Logan’s Run quotes from the first poem of the book: The Naming of the Cats:
And, of course, the longest running Broadway show in history: Cats by Andrew Lloyd Weber. [To note, I’m including links, but I actually suggest reading the poems first, then listening to the soundtrack, and then watching the movie. I think this gives the greatest appreciation for each of the individual aspects (poetry, music, ballet/acting/staging) without the distraction of getting all aspects at once.]
https://www.youtube.com/@catsmusical (Link goes to its own YT page with individual videos and includes interviews.)
On a Personal Note
My husband loved this book when he was little. He read the poem “Macavity: The Mystery Cat” right after reading “The Hound of Baskerville” and the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He was 8 years old at the time and has never stopped loving it.
So, of course, he read it to our children. They were 5 and 3 years old and also loved it. In fact, we even had the CD of Cats by (Sir) Andrew Lloyd Weber that we often listened to in the car.
Cats Save the Day
Both of our sons were also movers and shakers. My younger son especially LOVED to dance. He would wiggle, move, leap, shake, rattle, and roll to all of the music constantly playing in the background. (I taught music in our house as well as practiced. In fact, he would often wear himself out and fall asleep under the piano bench when I was practicing.)
When my younger son was four years old, we enrolled him in ballet classes. There were no boys’ classes, but we found a girls’ class that he could attend. He loved his teachers, also husband and wife. And, he took to ballet like a fish in water.
Fast forward a year: my younger son was in his second ballet season when he started Kindergarten. The girls were so intensely cruel to him because he loved ballet, that they mocked him mercilessly. He came home in tears one day, having enough of it and wanting to quit ballet. He said the girls told him that boys didn’t dance.
I would not hear of him giving up his passion just because a bunch of girls thought boys didn’t dance. As a fan of Mikhail Baryshnikov, this ignorance caught in my craw. I always found the way male ballet dancers combine power and grace to be just as sexy as watching a big, macho soldier come up home on leave from military service and pick up his kids in a big bear hug. I love watching that kind of stuff! Besides, they train football players and ice skaters by having them take ballet. Who did these girls think threw girls up into the air and caught them when dancing in pairs?
So, we all got behind him. I went straight to the store where I bought the DVD of the Broadway Show: Cats, which we watched together as a family. His older brother enrolled in his ballet class, so that he wouldn’t be the only boy in the class. And, his father regularly read T. S. Eliot’s poems from Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.
He made company at 12.
Springboards
This set of poems opens up a whole world of exploration into different aspects of contemporary English life, such as St. James’s Street Clubs, Sherlock Holmes stories, barges on the Thames, Cockney, the railway system, the theatre life, and so forth.
Have you read Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats?
If so, which is your favorite cat?
If you’re interested in exploring the birthplace of T.S. Eliot, don’t forget to check out his star on the Delmar Loop, just north of Washington University, a university his grandfather helped found in 1853. It’s one of the few monuments St. Louis has, though Washington University & MICDS are both lasting institutions founded by Eliot’s grandfather.
https://stlouiswalkoffame.org/t-s-eliot/
https://theclio.com/entry/42373
https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/planning/cultural-resources/city-landmarks/TS-Eliot-House.cfm
https://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/2015/09/01/finding-eliot-in-st-louis/
https://www.micds.org/our-school/our-history/