YEATS, W.B. The Cutting of an Agate (First edition)

London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1919. First edition. Octavo. pp. vii, 223. Original dark blue cloth, upper cover and spine elaborately blocked in gilt with a stylised Art Nouveau design by Althea Gyles, title in gilt on spine. pp. vii, 223. A very good copy with light fading to spine, occasional minor spotting and a few unopened leaves. An attractive example in the publisher’s decorative binding.

A collection of essays by Yeats on literature, drama, Irish cultural nationalism and aesthetics, gathering together important pieces including Certain Noble Plays of Japan, The Tragic Theatre, essays on J.M. Synge, John Shawe-Taylor, and Edmund Spenser. The title essay reflects Yeats’s belief in the careful shaping of artistic form, using the cutting of an agate stone as a metaphor for artistic creation.

The striking binding was designed by Althea Gyles, one of the most distinctive figures associated with the Irish Literary Revival, and is regarded as among the most attractive of Yeats’s trade editions. Published in the aftermath of the First World War and on the eve of Ireland’s revolutionary decade, the volume offers valuable insight into Yeats’s developing literary and political thought during a formative period of the Irish Revival.

Wade 119.

[L4 8D]