KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF F. H. BRADLEY

First edition, first printing. Original blue cloth lettered and ruled in gilt on black to the spine, in dustwrapper. A fine copy, the binding square and firm, the contents bright and clean throughout. In the crisp, bright dustwrapper, showing the merest wear to upper edges and corners and a 3 mm nick to the upper spine tip. Not price-clipped (30s net to the front flap). An unusually sharp, bright copy of this uncommon volume.

Eliot completed his study of Francis Herbert Bradley (its original title was 'Experience and the Objects of Knowledge in the Philosophy of F. H. Bradley') "in partial fulfilment of the requirements" for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Harvard University. Thanks to the award of a Sheldon Travelling Fellowship, Eliot was able to travel to England to work under Harold Joachim, a disciple of Bradley at Merton College. When the work was completed, in April 1916, Eliot was working as a junior master at Highgate Junior School. As things turned out, Eliot didn't return to Harvard to complete the doctorate, and lived in England from this time until his death in 1965, the year after this volume was published. It was the interest and persistence of two scholars that convinced the poet to allow the thesis to be published for the first time: Hugh Kenner, who referred to the thesis, and Eliot's debt to Bradley, in his 1960 study, 'The Invisible Poet' (Eliot famously quotes the philosopher in the notes to 'The Waste Land') and Professor Anne Bolgan of the University of Alaska, who read it in the Harvard University archives and, at the same time, found a copy of a letter from Professor J. H. Woods written to Eliot shortly after the dissertation had been submitted, in which he said that Josiah Royce, the distinguished American Pragmatist and had spoken of the young Eliot's study as "the work of an expert". For this edition, the thesis has been provided with notes and a bibliography by Professor Bolgan and two articles Eliot published while writing it. The volume is dedicated to Eliot's wife, Valerie "who urged me to publish this essay". Published 31 January 1964 in an edition of 5040 copies, it was the last book to be published during Eliot's lifetime. (Gallup A75b).