The Tiger in the House was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1920, two years before Van Vechten turned to fiction, and it remains his most enduringly popular book — a sui generis work of cultural history that treats the domestic cat with the seriousness usually reserved for great men and movements.
The book covers cats in ancient Egypt, classical Rome, medieval Europe, and the modern world; cats in literature from Aesop to Baudelaire; cats in art from Japanese prints to Manet; cats in music and theater; cats in folklore, superstition, and witchcraft; cats in the law; cats as metaphors; cats as companions. Van Vechten’s research is genuinely impressive — he reads widely in French, Italian, and German sources and quotes passages from obscure texts that most readers would never encounter — but the book’s charm lies in its tone, which is that of a cultured friend holding forth over dinner on a subject he finds endlessly fascinating.
The thesis, insofar as there is one, is that the cat is the most aesthetically perfect of domestic animals and the one most compatible with the artistic temperament. Van Vechten argues that the cat’s independence, sensuality, and indifference to human opinion make it the natural companion of writers, painters, and musicians. The book is a monument to that particular form of twentieth-century connoisseurship that sees no contradiction between deep learning and deep pleasure.
Collecting The Tiger in the House
First edition (Knopf, New York, 1920): One of Knopf’s early titles. Green cloth with cat illustration.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $150–$400
- Without jacket: $30–$80
- Later illustrated editions: $15–$40