Lords of the Housetops: Thirteen Cat Tales

Cats have occupied literature since the ancient world, but never quite like this. Carl Van Vechten, that most feline of literary lions himself gathered thirteen writers to reveal every shade of the creature on the windowsill and the hearth. Here are cats scheming and cats sleeping, cats beloved and cats banished, cats that are gods and cats that are simply unbearable housemates. The contributors range from James Branch Cabell's baroque wit to Will Cabell's elegant sketches, from John Galsworthy's quiet observation to the more surprising voices Van Vechten drew from his vast circle. This isn't a book of cat stories so much as a portrait gallery: thirteen writers look at the same animal and see thirteen different creatures. What emerges is something truer than any single cat tale could be. The book captures what every cat person knows in their bones: the animal is unfathomable, ancient, and somehow always watching. Nearly a century old, these tales remain the perfect companion for anyone who has ever shared a home with something that tolerated their presence.