[Rarebooks] FS: Five by W. B. YEATS including Signed, Early Dustwrappers, Limited, Scarce

[Charles Agvent]

1.  YEATS,  W.  B. LAST POEMS AND TWO PLAYS. Dublin: The  Cuala  Press
1939.  First Edition. Original linen-backed blue boards with a printed
paper  label on the spine. One of 500 copies printed in red and  black
on   Saggert  Mills  hand-made  paper.   Illustrated  with  a  woodcut
title-page  vignette. Includes "Under Ben Bulben" and "John Kinsella's
Lament  for Mrs. Mary Moore." Bookplate on front pastedown. Faint, old
dampstaining  to bottom of boards and some spotting to the top of  the
front board; contents clean. Very Good                         $400.00

2.  YEATS,  W. B. LATER POEMS. New York: The MacMillan  Company  1924.
First  Edition. Original green cloth-backed brown paper boards  with a
paper  label on the front cover and on the spine. Copy #4 of only  250
numbered  copies  SIGNED by the author on the limitation leaf of  this
scarce  collection  of  poems. Housed in a  handsome  oversized  (8" x
11-1/4"  with  the  book measuring 5-1/4" x 8")  brown  morocco-backed
linen  clamshell  box with leather trim on the fore-edge and a  darker
brown  morocco  gilt-lettered  spine label, handmade by  Gray  Parrot.
Minor  foxing to endpapers and mild bumping to upper corners of  book;
box  fine.  About  Fine  in a beautiful,  custom-made  clamshell  box.
                                                               $3000.00

3.  YEATS,  W. B. THE KING'S THRESHOLD: AND ON BAILE'S  STRAND:  BEING
VOLUME  THREE  OF  PLAYS FOR AN IRISH THEATRE. London:  A.  H.  Bullen
1904.  First  Edition. Original green linen-backed gray  paper  boards
with  paper  spine label. Wade 56. Published in March 1904. This  copy
while  not  signed  by  the author is INSCRIBED by him  on  the  front
endpaper:  "To MD/for her [his?] birthday/Mar 1904." An educated guess
is  that  MD  might  stand  for the  actress  Miss  Darragh  [Florence
Laetitia  (Dallas) Darragh), an established figure on the London stage
who  appeared  in the Dublin 1906 production of Yeats's plays  DEIRDRE
and  THE SHADOWY WATERS and of whom Yeats thought very highly. Another
possibility  is Michael Davitt, the Irish Nationalist, whose  birthday
was  on the 25th of March and who died in 1906. Adding to the intrigue
is  an old pencil note in an unidentified hand on the front pastedown:
"pres.  copy for Stephen Gwynn." Gwynn, author and Irish  nationalist,
was  a  champion  for Yeats. According to the DICTIONARY  OF  NATIONAL
BIOGRAPHY,  "In  spite of his book Irish Literature and  Drama  (1936)
and  some  early association with the Irish Players in  London,  Gwynn
himself  had  little to do with drama, and stood apart from  the  fame
and  influence  of  the  Abbey   Theatre."  Perhaps  the  most  likely
possibility  is  the illustrator and playwright Mabel Dearmer, a  very
close  friend  of Gwynn's who died while serving as a nurse  in  World
War  I.  Gwynn  wrote  a  memoir  of  her  in  Dearmer's  posthumously
published  LETTERS FROM A FIELD HOSPITAL. Thus the pencil note related
to  Gwynn could refer to his receiving the book from Dearmer or from a
member  of  her  family after her death. An altogether Very  Good  and
intriguing copy.                                              $3500.00

4.  YEATS, W. B. THE WINDING STAIR. London: Macmillan and Co,  Limited
1933.    First  Edition.  Decorated   cloth  and  matching   pictorial
dustwrapper  by  Sturge Moore. Wade 169: 2000 copies. One  of  Yeats's
finest  collections  containing "Coole Park, 1929,"  "Byzantium,"  and
the  Crazy Jane poems, among others. Slight tanning to the  fore-edges
of  the  endpapers from the dustwrapper; offsetting to four  pages  of
text  from clippings once laid in. Dustwrapper slightly darkened  with
a  short closed tear at the bottom front but complete and  attractive.
Near Fine in a Near Fine dustwrapper.                         $1500.00

5.  YEATS,  W.  B.  THREE THINGS. London: Faber &  Faber  1929.  First
Edition.  Original thin gilt-lettered blue boards. Yeats's single poem
is  illustrated  with two drawings, one in color, by Gilbert  Spencer.
Copy  #455  of  only  500  numbered   copies  SIGNED  by  the  author,
constituting  the Large Paper Edition printed by the Curwen Press.  As
always,  the  fragile spine suffers some loss of paper, in  this  case
only  two thin strips less than an inch in length. Still Near Fine for
this fragile piece, increasingly uncommon.                    $1200.00


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CHARLES AGVENT
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