ON THE BOILER.
Dublin: The Cuala Press, 1939. Quarto. Blue-green wove card wrappers decorated and printed in black, yapped edges. Cover design by Jack B. Yeats, R.H.A. [8],9-46,[2] pp. Toned at wrap edges, closed split at lower edge of spine, bookplate on verso of front wrap, minor crease at fore-edge, yapped edges with the inevitable tears, else very good.
Second edition; the first edition printed by an inexperienced printer had to be all but completely destroyed due to its inferior production. Often quoted is a report that Yeats's widow had it destroyed, but she proposed to the board of the Cuala Press that a new edition be printed, and it was : “George Yeats … told Allan Wade that ‘only about four copies of this edition had been issued when it was decided to reprint the book; the whole remainder of the edition was then destroyed and the new edition substituted’. That was that.” – O’Donnell, 391-446 pp. The census as of 2018 is: “The record of Wade no. 201 indicates the extant copies: Dublin Municipal Library; Emory University; Wesleyan University; and George M. Harper collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (formerly in the collection of Senator Michael Yeats); and Colin Smythe reports three other copies: P & B Rowan, Belfast have sold two copies, one without a cover, and Birgit Bramsbäck owned a copy, which was sold at Sotheby’s 18 December 1995, lot 318,” which makes seven copies extant. Item #782
WADE 202.
Price: $200.00