LIMITED FIRST EDITION OF FURTHER LETTERS OF JOHN BUTLER YEATS, WITH AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR

(YEATS, William Butler) YEATS, John Butler and ROBINSON, Lennox, editor. Further Letters of John Butler Yeats. Churchtown, Ireland: Cuala Press, 1920. Octavo, original half beige cloth, paper spine label, uncut. $1250.

Limited first edition of this compilation of letters from John Butler Yeats to his son, W.B. Yeats, one of 400 copies, with an autograph signed letter from John Butler Yeats to Gladys Baldwin and a signed check laid in.

The collected letters written by John Butler Yeats to his son, W.B. Yeats, between 1916 and 1918, published as a companion volume to Passages from the Letters of John Butler Yeats, published in 1918. John Butler Yeats, in addition to being the author of several epistolary works, was an acclaimed painter who did portraits of many famous writers from the Irish literary revival, including Synge and Lady Gregory. Also included with this volume is an autograph letter from Yeats to his close friend, Gladys Baldwin of New York. The laid-in letter reads: “317. W 29. March. 18- 1918. My dear Missus Gladys Baldwin, I owe you many apologies for not sooner answering your kind letter-but I have been busy w things myself very busy, & I have had a cold-such a cold as never was-I refuse to describe [it] in conventional English-My essays, such as they are, are at present being published in Dublin. I don’t want to think about them-them not being my doing-these are the works of a’prenticehand. Meantime, let me say that I am very much pleased & flattered by your letter. Particularly when I think that perhaps your proposition has the approval of that distinguished man Carmen Bliss-I have made a little reputation out of my “letters”-it will be destroyed by the publication of these essays. Yours very truly, J B Yeats.” A cancelled check from Gladys Baldwin signed on the verso by John Butler Yeats laid in. Two envelopes hand-addressed by John Butler Yeats, one of which is laid in and the other of which is affixed to the front pastedown. Wade Appendix I:29. Bookplate of Gladys Baldwin covering contemporary owner signature. Contemporary bookseller’s ticket.

A few spots of soiling to text, slight discoloration to front endpapers, light soiling, mainly to spine, moderate rubbing to spine label. An extremely good copy.