London: Faber, 1950

8vo, pp. 170. Original green boards, lettered in silver to spine. Bookplate to front pastedown (see below). Printed dustwrapper.

First edition, first issue, with 'here' for 'her' on p.29. JOHN GIELGUD'S COPY, WITH HIS BOOKPLATE TO FRONT PASTEDOWN. Gielgud's several recordings of Eliot's works over nearly half a century remain among the very best.

The Cocktail Party was first performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 1949 in a production starring Robert Flemyng, Alec Guinness and Irene Worth. Worth was a close friend of Gielgud's, and the two recorded a recital of Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats in 1983.