Roddy Doyle to W. B. Yeats: All things Irish this St Patrick’s Day at Fulham Road.
Those who pass by our Fulham Road shop on a regular enough basis will already be aware that our window display changes frequently. This week, we’re celebrating the long and rich literary history of Ireland, in honour of St Patrick’s Day, Thursday 17 March 2016. Just in case you won’t have the chance to see it for yourself, we thought we’d keep you up-to-date on the books, prints and curiosities making an appearance each time a reshuffle takes place.
Lond Lankin John Banville
BANVILLE, John.
Long Lankin. – SOLD
London: Secker and Warburg, 1970
Octavo. Original black boards, titles to spine gilt. With the dust jacket. Dust jacket with inked in price to front flap, light wear and rubbing to extremities. An excellent copy.
First edition, first impression. Author’s first book.
£875
Murphy by Samuel Beckett
BECKETT, Samuel.
Murphy – SOLD
London: A Jupiter Book, Calder & Boyars, 1969
Octavo. Original brown boards, titles to spine gilt. With the dust jacket. Housed in a cloth solander box. Spine tips a little faded and rubbed, contents toned. An excellent copy in a rubbed jacket with a few minor nicks and chips.
Presentation copy inscribed by the author to Patrick Magee and his wife Belle on the half-title, “To Pat & Belle, with love, from Sam”. This is a reprint of the Calder edition, which was first published in 1963. Murphy was originally published in 1938.
£1,500
(BLOOD, Colonel.) KAYE, Whittenbury .
The Romance & Adventures of the notorious Colonel Blood, who attempted to steal The Crown Jewels from The Tower of London in the Reign of Charles II.
Manchester: Subscriber’s Edition printed by S. Clarke,
Octavo, original pale grey-blue cloth, title in red and black to the upper board, in black to spine. Illustration to the text, title printed in red and black, running head in red. Bibliotheca Lindesiana bookplate top the front pastedown, Balcarres ownership inscription dated 1909 to the front free endpaper, later inscription of W. A. Wagstaff to the front pastedown, and book ticket of Jonathan Goodman, crime historian to free endpaper. A little rubbed and spotted, spine slightly tanned, some foxing and browning, but overall very good.
First edition, the subscribers’ edition. Uncommon account of the dramatic tale of Colonel Blood’s clumsy plot to steal the Crown Jewels, COPAC has just BL for this and also a copy of the John Heywood-published standard edition, OCLC adds a copy of the former at New York University and the latter at the University of Minnesota. Rev. Whittenbury Kaye was a Manchester clergyman and antiquarian. Finding a record of Blood’s wedding to Maria Holcroft in the parish register of his own church, he set to gathering all the materials he could relating to the career of the flamboyant Irishman.
£250
Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry – SOLD
Philadelphia, E. L. Carey & A. Hart; Baltimore, Carey, Hart, & Co. 1834
2 volumes, octavo. Original pink cloth-backed beige paper boards, without lettering or labels as usual, edges uncut. Contemporary pencilled inscriptions of Walter Chiles on titles, dated December 1835 in vol. 1 and January 1836 in vol. 2. Spines sunned, extremities a little worn, some foxing, but a good sound copy in original state.
First American Edition of this classic account of Irish mores, first published in book form in 1830, many of the stories having first appeared in the Christian Examiner from April 1828 onwards. William Carleton (1794–1869), “the first authentic Irish peasant novelist in English” (ODNB), was son of a Co. Tyrone Catholic tenant farmer who was bilingual in Irish and English and gifted with such an extraordinary memory that in later life his son never heard an Irish story that was completely new to him.
£200
COLUM, Padraic.
Irish Elegies – SOLD
Dublin: The Dolmen Press, 1963
Small quarto. Original white boards, titles to spine gilt, light blue paper to sides. Spotting to top edge of leaves and boards, and a small white mark to upper board. An excellent copy in the dust jacket.
Third edition, enlarged and revised. First published as six poems as the ninth part of the Dolmen Chapbook in 1958. A collection of elegies eulogising men who “had augmented the Irish spirit in formative years”, each poem “produced immediately on the announcement of death”.
£40
COLUM, Padraic.
Wild Earth. A book of verse
Dublin, Maunsel & Co. Ltd., 1909
Octavo. Original linen backed brown boards, titles to upper board in green. Upper joint partially split, spine a little tanned. Very good.
Second edition, with additions. With the author’s signed presentation inscription to the half title page, “To Mrs. Jack Yeats from Padraic Colum May 1912”.
£300
DONLEAVY, J. P.
The Ginger Man
Paris: The Traveller’s Companion Series, published by The Olympia Press, June 1955
Octavo. Original green and white wrappers printed in black. Very mild toning to spine, very light rubbing to ends and corners, faint mark to rear wrapper, a really excellent copy.
First edition, first printing (with the words “Special Volume, Francs: 1.500” to rear wrapper), of Donleavy’s first novel, inscribed by the author on the half-title with the novel’s final words, “God’s mercy on the wild, J. P. Donleavy”.
£1,250
DOYLE, Roddy.
The Commitments – SOLD
Dublin: King Farouk, 1987
Octavo. Bound in original paper wrappers. Some slight creasing to backstrip, with covers a little marked. A very good copy.
First edition. The author’s first book published by himself in this paperback edition in Dublin. Famously filmed in 1991. Scarce.
£440
GREGORY, Lady.
Coolen – SOLD
Dublin: The Cuala Press, 1931
Octavo. Original Holland boards. Title label slightly tanned with a few trivial marks to covers, but a fresh bright copy in excellent condition.
First edition, first impression; one of 250 copies, of Lady Gregory’s lyrical essay on her home at Coole, with quotations taken from Yeats’s paeans to the place which was so vital to his imagination.
£400
(HEANEY, Seamus.)
Everyman: an Annual Religio-Cultural Review. Aquarius.
Benburb, County Tyrone: Servite Priory, 1969–74
7 issues (all published), square octavo. Original printed wrappers. Plates from photographs throughout. In excellent condition.
First editions, first impressions. A complete run of this uncommon annual publication, most notable for the inclusion of work by Seamus Heaney: an interview with Michéal MacLiammóir and the poem “Birdwatcher” in issue I, the poem “Yan”’ in issue II, the verse-play Munro in issue III, and two poems , “A Constable Calls” and “Act of Union” in issue VII. There are also contributions from Brian Friel and Michael Longley.
£600
JOYCE, James.
Dubliners.
London: Grant Richards Ltd, 1914
Octavo. Original red cloth, gilt lettered spine and front cover. Housed in a burgundy quarter morocco solander box made by the Chelsea Bindery. Spine toned, some staining to covers, boards very slightly bowed, fore-edge a little foxed, scattered foxing internally.
First edition, first impression, first issue, one of 746 sets of sheets bound by Grant Richards and issued in London on 15 June 1914. The remaining 504 sets of the 1,250 printed were shipped to Huebsch in New York, where they were not issued until much later, sometime between 15 December 1916 and 1 January 1917.
£8,500
JOYCE, James, & F. J. C. Skeffington.
Two Essays. A Forgotten Aspect of the University Question and The Day of the Rabblement. – SOLD
Dublin: Privately printed by Gerrard Bros., October 15,
8 page pamphlet. Original pink wrappers printed in black. Housed in a marbled slipcase and chemise. Spine tanned, some spotting to wrappers. An excellent copy.
First edition, sole impression of James Joyce’s first obtainable published work. Joyce was a student at University College, Dublin in 1901 when he penned this essay critical of the theatre of Yeats, Moore, and Martyn. “The Irish Literary Theatre gave out that it was the champion of progress, and proclaimed war against commercialism and vulgarity. It had partly made good its word and was expelling the old devil when after the first encounter it surrendered to the popular will. Now your popular devil is more dangerous than your vulgar devil. Bulk and lungs count for something, and he can gild his speech aptly. He has prevailed once more, and the Irish Literary Theatre must now be considered the property of the rabblement of the most belated race in Europe”. This essay and one advocating female equality within the university by Joyce’s schoolmate F. J. C. Skeffington were both rejected by the University College newspaper, Joyce’s because he mentioned D’Annunzio’s Il Fuoce, which was on the Index librorum prohibitorum. Instead, the two young men paid to have the essays published as a pamphlet in a small run of perhaps 100 to 200 copies which they hand-delivered. Joyce’s only previously published work was Et Tu, Healy!, a pamphlet printed by his father when he was aged nine of which no known copies survive. Two Essays is scarce, with only six copies appearing at auction since 1990. The present copy is unusually nice, without the creasing usually seen.
£9,750
LELAND, Thomas.
The History of Ireland,from the Invasion of Henry II. With a preliminary discourse on the Antient State of that Kingdom. – SOLD
London: J. Nourse, T. Longman, G. Robinson and J. Johnson, 1773
3 volumes, quarto (260 x 200 mm). Contemporary speckled half calf, marbled paper boards, spines with two-line gilt bands and red morocco lettering-pieces, speckled edges. Scattered foxing; a handsome set in a period binding.
First edition. Thomas Leland (1722-1785) was a Church of Ireland clergyman, historian and translator. He was encouraged to write his history by a group of Irish intellectuals, chief among them the great statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke. Burke believed that histories of Ireland up until that time had been “terribly defective” and had himself thought about writing a specific history of Ireland covering the turbulent 1640s. Instead he decided to “urge a very learned and ingenious friend”, Thomas Leland, to undertake the task.
£950
Wild Sports of the West. With Legendary Tales, and Local Sketches.
London: Richard Bentley, 1832
2 volumes, octavo (212 x 132 mm). Later 19th century dark red half calf by Larkins, richly gilt spines, black morocco twin labels, marbled sides and endpapers. Aquatint frontispieces, 3 plates, 12 wood-engravings in the text. Bound without the half-title in volume I (as called-for by Sadleir), bindings a little rubbed, a few gatherings a little proud, scattered foxing or signs of handling. An attractive set.
First edition. “In 1829 Maxwell achieved recognition as a writer when Henry Colburn published his Stories of Waterloo, for which he paid him £300. Three years later one of his most popular books appeared: Wild Sports of the West (1832). This contained lively tales and legends together with colourful descriptions of Irish people, sporting activities (such as salmon fishing and deer hunting), and the Connaught countryside… Maxwell had thus become a progenitor of two kinds of fiction which became popular in the 1830s and 1840s: the military novel and the rollicking story of Irish life” (ODNB). The presence of aquatint illustrations is unusual, and the wood engravings in the text, mostly signed “T. Bagg”, are delightful.
£600
O’BRIEN, EDNA.
Mother Ireland. With photographs by Fergus Bourke – SOLD
London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1976
Octavo. Original brown cloth, titles to spine gilt. With the pictorial dust jacket. Illustrated with black and white photographs by Fergus Bourke. Small bump to top edge of front board. An excellent copy in a lightly toned jacket with a couple of short closed tears.
First edition, first impression. Presentation copy inscribed by the author to actor and writer John Wells on the title page: “Dearest John, a reminder and love from Edna, June 1976”. Laid in is a lenghty autograph letter signed by O’Brien presenting the copy and putting an old disagreement to rest: “I was a bit sad when you mentioned ‘burying the hatchet’ because I assure you there isn’t or wasn’t one to bury.”
£150
O’BRIEN, Flann.
The Third Policeman – SOLD
London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1967
Octavo. Original brown boards, titles to spine in gold. With the pictorial dust jacket. Spine gently rolled, an excellent copy in the faintly toned jacket.
First edition, first impression of the scarcest of the author’s post-war novels.
£750
O’CONNOR, Frank.
The Big Fellow: A Life of Michael Collins.
London: Thomas Nelson and Sons Limited, 1937
Octavo. Original green cloth, titles to spine gilt, top edge green. With the dust jacket. Portrait frontispiece. Bookseller’s ticket to rear pastedown. Spine slightly rolled, faint foxing to endleaves. An excellent copy in the bright, price-clipped jacket, with torn and chipped extremities.
First edition, first impression of this biography of the Irish revolutionary leader.
£350
O’FLAHERTY, Liam.
A Tourist’s Guide to Ireland.
London: The Mandrake Press,
Small octavo. Original black cloth, gold patterned sides, printed paper label to spine. With the dust jacket. Contents slightly toned. An excellent copy in the dust jacket with browned spine panel and a chip from the top of the spine.
First edition, first impression. This copy includes a coloured sketch (of what is presumably an Irishman in a green suit with pipe) pasted to the half-title and inscribed “With all my best to Hilda, Howard Baer”.
£280
SOMERVILLE, E. OE., & Martin Ross.
All on the Irish Shore.Irish Sketches. With Illustrations by E. OE. Somerville – SOLD
London: Longman, Green, and Co., 1903
Octavo. Original grey cloth, titles to spine gilt, titles and pictorial design to spine and upper board gilt and black, black endpapers. Frontispiece and 8 plates, one illustration within the text by E. OE. Somerville. 6 pages publisher’s ads. Contemporary gift inscription to title. Spine faded, cloth rubbed and spotted, spotting to edges of text-block, title pages, and occasionally to contents. A very good copy.
First edition.
£100
SOMERVILLE, E. OE., & Martin Ross.
Through Connemara in a Governess Cart.Illustrated by W. W. Russell, from Sketches by Edith OE. Summerville.
London: W. H. Allen & Co., Limited, 1893
Octavo. Original green cloth, titles and pictorial design to spine and upper board in gilt, black, yellow, purple, and white, black coated endpapers. 16 plates, illustrations throughout the text. No publisher’s ads. Two bookplates, ownership signature partially erased from title page, bookseller’s ticket to rear pastedown. Very slightly rubbed at extremities, a little spotting to half-title. An excellent copy.
First edition. Hudson lists several bindings, and in this case the cloth is green and the pages trimmed.
£425
STEPHENS, James.
Collected Poems – SOLD
London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1926
Square octavo. Original blue boards, gilt lettered vellum spine, untrimmed. Vellum a little mottled, endpapers a little foxed.
First and limited edition, one of 500 large paper copies, signed by the author. A handsomely produced edition of the Irish poet’s verse. Joyce referred to Stephens as “my rival, the latest Irish genius” and, when, at one point, he seemed unable to finish Finnegans Wake, thought of approaching Stephens to finish it for him; James Ellmann calls this “one of the strangest ideas in literary history”.
£125
SYNGE, J. M.
The Playboy of the Western World – SOLD
Dublin: Maunsel & Co, 1907
Octavo. Original tan cloth-backed red cloth, titles to spine in red. With a black and white portrait frontispiece of Synge by Yeats entitled “Synge at rehearsal W. B. Yeats Jan 25 1907”. Bottom corners of boards lightly bumped. A bright copy in excellent condition.
First edition, first impression, of the author’s three-act play, which was first performed at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin on 26 January 1907.
£675
TYNAN, Katharine (ed.)
The Wild Harp. A Selection from Irish Poetry. With decorations by C. M. Watts – SOLD
London: Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd., 1913
Large octavo. Original green cloth, gilt lettered and decorated spine and front cover, top edges gilt, others untrimmed, green endpapers. Decorative Celtic-knot border to titlepage (printed in purple, red and green), each page of letterpress within a pale grey-green Celtic-knot border. A very nice copy.
First edition, first impression, uncommon. A most attractive book, containing contributions from W. B. Yeats (”The Song of Red Hanrahan”, “An Old Song Resung”, “The Host of the Air”, “The Folly of Being Comforted”, “The Happy Townland”) and James Joyce (”Strings in the Earth and Air”, “At That Hour”, “I Hear an Army”); these had appeared originally in Yeats’s The Wanderings of Oisin (1889), The Wind Among the Reeds (1899), In the Seven Woods (1903) and Joyce’s Chamber Music (1907).
£225
WHITE, T. H.
The Godstone and the Blackymor.Illustrated by Edward Ardizzone.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1959
Octavo. Original patterned paper boards, titles gilt to spine on a black ground, Ardizzone drawing printed to front board in black, top edge orange. With the dust jacket. Illustrations by Ardizzone in the text. Adhesive-staining to free endpapers, a few very small spots to edges, an excellent copy in the bright, price-clipped and minimally rubbed dust jacket.
First edition, first impression of White’s account of life on the west coast of Ireland, with the illustrator’s inscription, “Signed for Bridget by Edward Ardizzone, Feb 1968”, to the front free endpaper, together with a typed letter from the Book Trade Group referring to Ardizzone’s visit to Melbourne, a related newspaper clipping and a prospectus from Jonathan Cape for their journal Now and Then, all laid in.
£375
YEATS, W. B.
The Tower – ITEM SOLD
London: Macmillan and Co., Limited 1928
Octavo. Original green cloth, titles and pictorial decoration to spine and upper board gilt. With the dust jacket. Mild rubbing to corners, ends of spine very lightly bumped, a touch of toning to gilt at lower edge of front board, ownership signature to front free endpaper, in the dust jacket with shallow chips to corners and top end of spine, light chipping to lower end of spine,touch of sunning to spine. A lovely copy.
First edition, first impression, of what is generally accepted to be Yeats’s single most important collection.
£2,000
YEATS, W. B. (ed.)
Samhain. An Occasional Review. – SOLD
Dublin & London: Sealy Bryers & Walker, and T. Fisher Unwin, 1901–8
Octavo. First four issues bound without wrappers in contemporary green cloth with titles to spine and front board gilt, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Last three issues in buff card wrappers printed in black as issued. Black and white portrait frontispiece to each issue and three other plates. Portraits by J. B. Yeats include William and Frank Fay, J. M. Synge. Small contemporary signature to front free endpaper of bound copies; tiny ballpoint pen inscription to initial leaf of one of the wrappered copies. Spine and board edges of binging rubbed, spine browned, wrappers rubbed and with a few small chips and closed tears, light sporadic foxing to contents. An excellent set.
First editions, first impressions, of the complete run of Yeats’s theatrical periodical. Yeats’s contributions include: “Windlestraws”, “Cathleen ni Hoolihan”, “The Reform of the Theatre”, “The Dramatic Movement” and “Literature and the Living Voice”.
£750
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