YEATS, W. B.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

The Wild Swans at Coole. First edition, inscribed by the poet on the first blank, "Inscribed to Carroll Carstairs by W. B. Yeats, Jan 15 1933". This is one of 400 copies of Yeats's major collection, including the title poem and "On Being Asked for a War Poem", his most enduring poem on the First World War.An American art dealer, Carroll Carstairs (1888-1948) first met Yeats in December 1913, when they stayed together in Sussex with Lady Gregory. Following the outbreak of war the following year, Carstairs enlisted in the Grenadier Guards, and he served in the British Army for the duration of the conflict. He subsequently published a memoir, A Generation Missing (1930), as well as several war poems. He met Yeats again in New York in 1933, during the final days of the poet's last American tour, where this book was inscribed.

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