CUALA PRESS: YEATS, W. B., & Lionel Johnson.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Poetry and Ireland: Essays. First edition, first impression, one of 250 copies. This was the first work produced under the Cuala imprint and contains two essays on the topic of poetry and patriotism. Yeats described his contribution, in a copy of the work inscribed to Lady Gregory in 1922, as "the best prose I have written".The Cuala Press was one half of Cuala Industries, a co-operative business run by Elizabeth and Lily Yeats. Cuala Industries was founded with the aim of reviving the craft of book printing in Ireland and "to give work to Irish girls" (McMurtrie, p. 472). They published many key works and authors of the Irish Literary Revival.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.

• Printing: first

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.