Calling All Jellicles: Book Recs for T. S. Eliot's Cats

Hey there, Mr. Mistoffelees!

We see you, and we see your potentially complex feelings about the Cats movie and its "digital fur technology." The trailer set the internet on fire this summer, and now it’s very nearly time to head to the theater. We can’t wait either.

Before you deck yourself out in full Jellicle Ball splendor, you can brush up on the literary underpinnings of this cultural phenomenon, which began long before Universal Pictures got its paws on it. All the current uproar is based on T.S. Eliot’s slender volume of poetry, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, first published in 1939. 

The poems were given new life (and more cats) in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s blockbuster musical, which brought the poetic felines to the London stage in 1981. When the show came to Broadway a year later, it became a smash hit there as well, and it remains one of the longest-running musicals in both British and U.S. history.

Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1886, and he became one of the most prominent modernist poets. He was a famously private person—Leonard Woolf said he was "like someone in a sealed envelope"—but he did put a few personal touches into this collection. He himself was "Old Possum," a nickname from Ezra Pound, and the poems were intended for his godchildren. Critics suggest the puns and silliness hinted at Eliot’s sense of humor and counteracting the serious reputation he’d earned with most of his literary output, like "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915), The Waste Land (1922), and "Ash-Wednesday" (1930). (Check them out in this collected volume, or as an e-book.)

So, as much as we’d love to see a no-CGI version of the upcoming movie, we’ll stick to the source material here and suggest some books based on the personalities of our favorite cats from Eliot’s original poems. Feel free to check out this quiz from PBS (!) for a more personalized recommendation, too. 

And if you just can’t get enough feline books in your life, take a look at our book experts’ suggestions for their own favorite cat books and for young cat enthusiasts.

Are we really about to recommend books to fictional cats? You bet your sweet Skimbleshanks we are.

Jennyanydots

I have a Gumbie Cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots;

Her coat is of the tabby kind, with tiger stripes and leopard spots.

All day she sits upon the stair or on the steps or on the mat:

She sits and sits and sits and sits—and that's what makes a Gumbie Cat!

        But when the day's hustle and bustle is done,

        Then the Gumbie Cat's work is but hardly begun.

        And when all the family's in bed and asleep,

        She tucks up her skirts to the basement to creep.

        She is deeply concerned with the ways of the mice—

        Their behaviour's not good and their manners not nice;

        So when she has got them lined up on the matting,

        She teaches them music, crocheting and tatting.

Rebel Wilson plays Jennyanydots in the movie, and she’s a trickster, all right. Astound and delight your fellow cats with sleight-of-hand from Magic Tricks with Coins, Cards, and Everyday Objects by Jake Banfield.

Gus the Theatre Cat

Gus is the Cat at the Theatre Door.

His name, as I ought to have told you before,

Is really Asparagus. That's such a fuss

To pronounce, that we usually call him just Gus.

His coat's very shabby, he's thin as a rake,

And he suffers from palsy that makes his paw shake.

Yet he was, in his youth, quite the smartest of Cats—

But no longer a terror to mice and to rats.

For he isn't the Cat that he was in his prime;

Though his name was quite famous, he says, in its time.

In one of many acts of brilliant, nearly inexplicable casting, Ian McKellen plays Gus in the film. The esteemed Shakespearean actor is also a prolific audiobook narrator, with dozens of titles to his name; download his work on recordings of The Odyssey, Henry IV, or Asylum from the Library.
 

Macavity the Mystery Cat

Macavity's a Mystery Cat: he's called the Hidden Paw—

For he's the master criminal who can defy the Law.

He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair:

For when they reach the scene of crime—Macavity's not there!

Idris Elba doesn’t need help from us, but maybe Macavity could use some tips on international espionage, in case he ever decides to take his criminal mastermind act on the road. And in that case, Work Like a Spy: Business Tips from a Former CIA Officerby J.C. Carlson could help Macavity up his game even further.

Bustopher Jones

Bustopher Jones is not skin and bones—

In fact, he's remarkably fat.

He doesn't haunt pubs—he has eight or nine clubs,

For he's the St. James's Street Cat!

He's the Cat we all greet as he walks down the street

In his coat of fastidious black:

No commonplace mousers have such well-cut trousers

Or such an impeccable back.

In the whole of St. James's the smartest of names is

The name of this Brummell of Cats;

And we're all of us proud to be nodded or bowed to

By Bustopher Jones in white spats!

Clearly, this James Corden cat cares a great deal about being well dressed, so we’re recommending the full complement of Tim Gunn’s style guides and and books of fashion advice. Make it work, Bustopher!

Old Deuteronomy

Old Deuteronomy's lived a long time;

    He's a Cat who has lived many lives in succession.

He was famous in proverb and famous in rhyme

    A long while before Queen Victoria's accession.

Respect must be paid to this cat, and obviously, Dame Judi Dench could play Old Deuteronomy in her sleep. Check out her autobiographies, Behind the Scenes and And Furthermore.

Rum Tum Tugger

The Rum Tum Tugger is a Curious Cat:

If you offer him pheasant he would rather have grouse,

If you put him in a house he would much prefer a flat,

If you put him in a flat then he'd rather have a house.

If you set him on a mouse then he only wants a rat,

If you set him on a rat then he'd rather chase a mouse.

Yes the Rum Tum Tugger is a Curious Cat—

    And there isn't any call for me to shout it:

        For he will do

        As he do do

            And there's no doing anything about it!

Mischievous and curious is a dangerous combination—and in the new film, Jason Derulo plays Rum Tum Tugger as the sexiest cat in a whole cast of sexy cats. We’re not sure this is exactly what Eliot had in mind, but hey, maybe Rum and his pals could all use some advice from the wisest woman of the book and the screen, Nora Ephron. The Most of Nora Ephroncollects dozens upon dozens of her essays, as a final gift to her devoted readers.

Do you have a favorite Cat, and an idea about what book they’d read?

 

 

Have trouble reading standard print? Many of these titles are available in formats for patrons with print disabilities.

Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your ideas too, so leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend. And check out our Staff Picks browse tool for more recommendations!