Little Gidding

First separate edition. Thin 8vo. 16pp. Publisher's sewn mulberry paper wrappers, printed in black; yapped edges, fore- and bottom edges untrimmed. First Impression and earliest state (sewn rather than stapled) of the fourth and final section of the Four Quartets.

Slightly marked to upper cover and front prelims., trace of toning to spine, some rubbing to edges, else Fine in a sound binding.

Published on 1st December 1942, in a printing of 16,775 copies. No separate edition was issued in the United States. Precedes the first collected edition which appeared in the U.S. by Harcourt, Brace and Company on 11 May 1943 and in the U.K. by Faber on Oct. 31st, 1944. Originally published in the 15th October 1942 issue of The New English Weekly.

The poem sums up the poet's meditations on "what might have been and what has been" by placing personal narrative within the context of national history. Having served as a fire-warden during the London Blitz, Eliot referencing the charred and sodden ruins the morning after the great hoses played upon them, links water and fire – the last, the primary of the four elements and necessary for societal purification and purgation – as equally destructive: "This is the death of water and fire." The title itself refers to the Anglican lay community founded by Nicholas Ferrar in the mid-17th century.

[Gardner, Helen. The Composition of "Four Quartets". New York: Oxford University Press, 1978; Gallup A42]