YEATS, W.B. The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems. (AUTHOR’S FIRST BOOK OF POEMS)

London: Kegan Paul, 1889. First edition. pp. vi, 156. Bound at the Chelsea Bindery in dark blue crushed levant morocco, title on gilt on upper cover and spine. A near fine copy in a superb Chelsea binding.
Wade 2.
First edition of the author’s first book of poems, including “The Stolen Child”, “Down by the Sally Gardens”, and the eponymous epic romance, in which the ancient Irish hero Oisin travels in Tir-nan-Oge (the land of youth) with the immortal Niamh and the poem ends with the hero returning to the mortal world. Yeats probably based his narrative on Brian O’Looney’s translation although it was also suggested he worked from the Gaelic Union school edition of the poem.
In 1938 Yeats wrote that ‘The Wanderings of Oisin’ “was published by subscription, John O’Leary finding almost all the subscribers”.

[L4 YEATS]