Binder of Signed Letters from Literary Figures and Others Sent to Dr. Absalom Minola, Cat Extraordinaire

(various): 1957-1971. 11-3/4 x 10-1/4 inches. Black three-ring binder with gilt stamped "Dr. Absalom Minola" to front cover, containing 39 sleeves with material inserted loosely on both sides of a black paper construction paper divider, plus assorted loose material laid in. Includes 74 items of correspondence addressed to Absalom Minola, the bulk of which are letters, as well some postcards and a couple of stock samples. Also included are relevant newspaper clippings, a certificate stating that Minola became an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church, plus several issues of the Eisenhower College Newsletter and Eisenhower College Press.

Binder quite rough, with a detached front cover, loss to the joint ends, and soiling; light soiling, toning and scattered foxing throughout; chipping and wear to newspapers and loose letter laid in at rear. Good overall.

A collection of correspondence documenting a whimsical literary hoax perpetrated by a cat known as Dr. Absalom Minola. Technically, to be fair, the hoax was perpetrated by Dr. Minola's caretaker, Jim Kantor, who became the university archivist at UC Berkeley as the hoax progressed, but as the correspondence is nearly all addressed to Dr. Minola, it is hard not to give him his due. As Kantor describes in a photomechanically copied typescript letter included here, dated May 25, 2006, "When I came to Berkeley in the summer of 1955 for a brief visit, and, instead, decided to attend graduate school at Cal, I took possession of a small Maltese kitten.... From course work in Department of English I found names for him, Absalom (from Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel) and Minola which, surprisingly, turned out to be the family name in The Taming of the Shrew. Later he was given an honorary degree, so became Dr. Absalom Minola. Then he had his own letterhead and under that wrote letters, first to friends, then to strangers of some prominence who had no idea of his species."

One of the earliest and most prominent of these unsuspecting correspondents was T.S. Eliot -- Old Possum himself! -- who writes a gracious but firm letter on Faber & Faber letterhead, dated November 5, 1958, in which he disagrees with Minola's interpretation of part of a poem (alas, it is unknown which poem). Eliot's widow, Valerie, was quite taken when she was informed in 1977 that Minola was a cat, and Kantor had hopes as late as 2006 that this would be included in the footnotes of Eliot's third volume of published correspondence, although we have been unable to ascertain if it ever was.

Other famous literary figures Minola corresponded with include Agatha Christie, who concedes that she may have subconsciously intended multiple meanings of the word "vole" in her writing; Charles Scribner, Jr., who takes umbrage at Minola's apparently less than appreciative review of Dreiser, by W.A. Swanberg; Joyce Carol Oates, who is grateful that anyone (even a cat! -- not that she knows that) is reading her work; Mary Renault, who admits that she erred about a character's birth year in The Charioteer; Granville Hicks, who cheerfully agrees that he shouldn't have referred to Theron Ware as Harold Frederic's "early novel," but adds that he "was thinking of the rather bad novels Frederic wrote at the end of his life", and so on. Notable non-literary correspondents, to name just a few, include Julia Child (aghast at Minola's custard-making skills, or lack thereof); the personal letter writer of the Queen of England, on Buckingham Palace letterhead; Dwight Eisenhower (presumably a secretarial signature); a representative from Time, responding twice to mistakes Minola noted in the magazine; and a representative from Dow Chemical Company, who urges Minola to be understanding that the odd defective roll of Handi-Wraps brand plastic film occasionally gets through to store shelves, and to accept a replacement from the company.

All in all, a remarkable collection of correspondence, sent to an obviously more remarkable cat (and his rather delightful, if somewhat persnickety, human).