O’FLAITHEARTA, Liam. Dúil.

IN ANNE YEATS DESIGN DUST JACKET

Baile Átha Cliath: Sáirséal agus Dill, 1953. Octavo. An chéad chló. Mauve cloth, titled in black. A near fine copy in very good unclipped dust jacket, designed by Anne Yeats.
Liam O’Flaherty (1897-1984), novelist and political activist, was born in Gort na gCapall on Inishmore in the Aran Islands. His father was active in the Land League and his mother was descended from a family of Plymouth Brethren from County Antrim who had come to Aran to build lighthouses. Educated at Rockwell, Blackrock, and U.C.D. He abandoned his priestly studies and joined the Irish Guards as Bill Ganly, using his mother’s maiden name and served for a while in France during the First World War. He was invalided out and eventually returned to Dublin to take part in the Revolution. Afterwards he returned to London and began his writing career. In spite of the large number of novels and the immense and deserved success of some of them, particularly The Informer and Famine, O’Flaherty is best known as a short-story writer. O’Flaherty separated from his wife and daughter and suffered a number of nervous breakdowns due to his experiences in the trenches. This copy bears contemporary editorial markings in red pencil to several pages, comprising ticks and marginal crosses.
A significant volume of short stories in Gaelic, Dúil, was published under the Gaelic form of his name, Liam Ó Flaithearta, which was widely read in schools.

[CAT 163]