Essays

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1924. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. No. 9 of 250 copies, octavo size, 548 pp., with the slipcase, signed by Yeats. William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) is acknowledged by many as "supreme among modern Irish poets". He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923 (the first Irish to be so recognized), at which time he was "one of Dublin's great established figures, both in his own right and as the representative of the cultural renaissance which...had set in motion the Irish revolution and war of independence." Throughout his life, and throughout his poetry - which is still read and loved today - Yeats is recognized as supremely Irish, with his life and poetry reflective of his Irish identity.

"Essays" is the fourth volume of the Macmillan "Collected Edition" of Yeats' work. The essays included are: "Ideas of Good and Evil", "The Cutting of an Agate", and "Per Amica Silentia Lunae", all of which are divided into sections, and most of them with some material which was new with this edition.

___DESCRIPTION: Teal cloth shelfback with brown laid paper boards, mounted paper label with black lettering and decorative border inset onto the front board, similar label on the spine, top edge rough-cut, fore- and bottom edges uncut, Yeats' signature on the limitation page tipped in before the half-title, this no. 9 of 250 copies, October 1924 publication date on the copyright page; octavo size (8" by 5.5"), pagination: [limitation statement, verso blank] [i-vi] vii-viii [1-2] 3-538. In the original slipcase of cardboard covered with smooth white paper, paper label in style similar to that on the front board on one side, limitation no. 9 hand-written, with a small notation at the top of the label "500[?]" - presumably a vintage price.

___CONDITION: Near fine, the paper covering the boards clean and unworn, perfectly straight corners without rubbing, a strong, square text block with solid hinges, the interior is clean and bright, and entirely free of prior owner markings; the head and tail of the spine gently bumped with a bit of wear to the cloth at the tail, the spine label sunned, and light dustiness to the text block edges. The slipcase very good, entire, with light overall soiling to the white paper, one of the bottom seams beginning to split but still sturdy and strong, and a bit of wear around the opening.

___CITATION: Wade no. 142.

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