Consisting of five sections and Eliot’s own ‘Notes’, which explain his many cultural allusions, quotations and half-quotations, the poem has become a beacon of literature in English.

Combining the Grail legend with that of the Fisher King, and mixing it all with a large dose of contemporary British society, the poem alternates between prophecy and satire, and features unannounced changes in speaker, time and location to produce a vast and dissonant cultural collage, which, infused with a post-First World War sense of depression and futility, became a rallying cry of youth against an older generation and a landmark of Modernist poetry.

For the letterpress-printed text, Folio secured handmade mould-made Zerkall paper – the last available anywhere in the world – with the deckle retained on two edges and gilding on the top edge.

Tom Phillips RA, well-known for his ability to read within a text and peel back its layers of meaning, has contributed 11 stunning illustrations printed giclée on Tatami paper and hand-tipped onto the page, as well as his own ‘Notes on the Images’. He has also designed fabulous hand-drawn lettering for the title, printed on the binding and blind-blocked on the cloth-covered clamshell box. Limited to just 350 copies, and only available in the US and Canada, each hand-numbered book has been signed by the artist.

Text excerpted from the website of The Folio Society