Lot 724
Cuala Press - Yeats, W.B.
Rare Books, Maps & Manuscripts
Auction: Rare Books, Maps & Manuscripts
Description
Michael Robartes and the dancer. Churchtown, Dundrum: The Cuala Press, 1920. First edition, 8vo., woodcut device printed in red, original quarter linen, grey paper boards, matching endpapers, uncut, unopened
Footnote
Note: Miller 30; Wade 127. One of 400 copies. Contains the first book publication of The Second Coming, a poem described by Foster (Vol. 2, p. 150) as having the power to "crystallize the doubts and feelings of a generation at a moment of flux." Also included in book form for the first time is Yeats's monumental poems about the nature of fanaticism and political violence, written in response to the violence of the Easter Rising of 1916 and first issued as pamphlet in 25 copies in 1916. It was considered by Yeats to be too controversial for wider publication until 1920. (See Gatch & Maggs p. 19 and Foster vol. 2, pp. 59-66)