Vol. 38 No. 1 (1990)
Research Article

Eliot's Naming of Cats

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  • Anne H. Lambert
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/nam.1990.38.1-2.39

Published 1990-06-01

Copyright (c) 1990 Maney

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Abstract

Most of the names of the cat characters in T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats are of the “peculiar, and more dignified” type, rather than everyday names, and depend either on sound or on meaning, occasionally on both. For nonsense names, Eliot was influenced by Edward Lear.

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References

  1. Ackroyd, Peter. T. S. Eliot: A Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984.
  2. Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Complete Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes. Secaucus, NJ: Castle Books,1976.
  3. Eliot, T. S. Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. 1939. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1982.
  4. Eliot, Valerie. “Apropos of Practical Cats.” CATS: The Book of the Musical. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1983.
  5. Kenner, Hugh. The Invisible Poet: T. S. Eliot. London: Methuen, 1965.
  6. The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Ed. C. T. Onions. 1966. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1978.
  7. Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary. Springfield, MA: Merriam, 1980.