DUN EMER PRESS: ALLINGHAM, William.

£300 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Sixteen Poems. First edition, first impression, one of 200 copies printed. Yeats wrote to Helen Allingham in December 1904 requesting permission to publish his selection: "I have the greatest possible admiration for Mr. Allingham's poetry. I am sometimes inclined to believe that he was my own master in Irish verse, starting me in the way I have gone whether for good or evil" (Miller, p. 44).William Allingham (1824-1889) drew much of his inspiration from traditional folk songs. His poem "The Fairies", included here, has been set to music and is still popularly taught in Irish schools.The Dun Emer Press was named for co-founder Evelyn Gleeson's home in Dundrum, near Dublin. The press, established with Lily and Elizabeth Yeats in late 1902, ran alongside an embroidery and rug making workshop. Eleven titles were released under the Dun Emer imprint, which was renamed the Cuala Press when the Yeats sisters split from Gleeson in 1908.This copy is from the library of Louis Claude Purser (1854-1932), brother of the artist Sarah Purser. A fellow classics student with Oscar Wilde at school, Purser was appointed professor of Latin at Trinity College, Dublin, and later served as president of the Royal Irish Academy. Elizabeth Yeats was his closest female friend.

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