London, Faber & Faber, (1944). The first British edition of this important collection, the individual poems of which were originally published separately in England in 1941-42 and then collected in the U.S. in 1943 -- in an edition that was, because of a printing error, mostly destroyed. These were the first of Eliot's poems to reach a wide audience and are considered the culminating expression of his religious sensibility: they were written during the dark, early years of World War II and reflect, in four short, accessible poems that draw heavily on English history, on large philosophical questions of time and permanence. Owner name on front pastedown; a bit of fading to the cloth, but none of the usual bowing to the boards; near fine in a spine-tanned dust jacket with several tiny closed tears and edge chips; about near fine. A very nice copy of a cheaply made wartime book, produced under the severe restrictions on paper use that were in effect in England during the Second World War. A Connolly 100 title. [#018586] SOLD