"THAT IS NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN": LIMITED FIRST EDITION OF YEATS' OCTOBER BLAST, 1927, ONE OF ONLY 350 COPIES, FEATURING NINE POEMS INCLUDING THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF SAILING TO BYZANTIUM AND THE FIRST APPEARANCE IN BOOK FORM OF THE TOWER

YEATS, William Butler. October Blast. Dublin: Cuala, 1927. Slim octavo, original half tan cloth and blue-gray paper boards.

Limited first edition, one of only 350 unnumbered copies printed on paper made in Ireland and published in Dublin, containing nine poems together in book form for the first time, including the first publication of Sailing to Byzantium, which Yeats placed first "to signal a point of departure," an exceptional copy in original half linen and paper boards.

By his twenties Yeats was "the most promising poet of his generation… but his work continued to grow in power, and his output actually increased, with over a third of his poems being written after he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1923" (Pethica, ed. Yeats' Poetry, xi). He was the "first Irishman so honored for what the Nobel Committee described as 'inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation'" (Irish Central). In October Blast, Yeats was able to "take a form associated with the English Romantics and turn it to his own Irish ends… the bibliographic coding highlighted its Irishness. The title page, for instance, gave the place of publication ('Dublin Ireland') equal billing with the author by setting it in type the same size… the title page, typeface, note, paper and colophon all proclaimed the book to be 'Made in Ireland' of Irish materials" (Cambridge Companion, 30).

"Yeats placed 'Sailing to Byzantium' at the head… for good reason. 'it was always to signal a point of departure'… As many critics have observed, Yeats arranged the volume so that the first four poems appear in the reverse of the order in which he wrote them. Grene calls this a 'backward, darkening, spiraling movement,' a 'widening gyre'" (Prior, W.B. Yeats, 100-101). Limited first edition, one of 350 unnumbered copies, issued the first week of June 1927. Containing nine poems: the first publication of "Sailing to Byzantium" and the first appearance in book form of "The Tower," along with first publication of "Among School Children," "Three Monuments" and "From Oedipus at Colonus," as well as the first appearance in book form of "First Love," "Human Dignity," "The Mermaid" and "The Death of the Hare" under the title "Young Countryman," and the first appearance in book form of "His Memories," "The Friends of His Youth," "Summer and Spring," "The Secrets of the Old" and "His Wildness" under the title "Old Countryman" (Ross, Critical Companion, 153). "Wisdom" earlier included in The Secret Rose (1897); "Two Songs from a Play" first appeared the same month as part of the play, The Resurrection, in The Adelphi. Yeats' Notes at rear. Without paper spine label. As issued without dust jacket. Wade 156. Roth Catalog 204.

Interior fresh and bright, lightest edge-wear, mild soiling to boards. A desirable about-fine copy.