cats the musical was based on a book of poems by t.s. eliot.
cats the musical was based on a book of poems by which poet?
t.s. eliot
eliot wrote the poems in the 1930s, and included them, under his assumed name "old possum", in letters to his godchildren. they were collected and published in 1939, with cover illustrations by the author, and quickly re-published in 1940, illustrated in full by nicolas bentley. they have also been published in versions illustrated by edward gorey (1982), axel scheffler (2009) and rebecca ashdown (2014).





























section::::contents.





























the contents of "old possum's book of practical cats", along with the names of the featured cats where appropriate, are:





























bullet::::- "the naming of cats"





























bullet::::- "the old gumbie cat" (jennyanydots)





























bullet::::- "growltiger's last stand"
old possum's book of practical cats
jellicle cats





























jellicle cats are a type of feline first introduced in t. s. eliot's light poetry book "old possum's book of practical cats". they were further developed in "cats", a stage musical composed by andrew lloyd webber and based on eliot's book.





























detailed on this page are characters from the musical. the large cast of diverse cats is an important part of the worldbuilding of the musical. many of these characters originated from eliot's book of poems, while others are named after characters from other works by eliot or were invented for the musical.





























section::::background.
jellicle cats