YEATS, W.B. Mounted Display with Signed Letter.

Typed Letter Signed from W.B. Yeats to Mr. Lyon, one page quarto on 4 Broad Street, Oxford, headed paper. Lyon was seeking “permission to include a poem of mine in a reading book for the National Schools”. Attractively mounted for fine display with a photograph [235 x 185mm] of William Butler Yeats in a chest-up portrait, in morning suit, wearing a bow tie and spectacles. Overall size 420 x 300mm. The letter is in fine condition also with paper-clip remnants to the upper edge, mild creasing, intersecting letter folds, and a couple of small tears to the right edge. A very attractive and sought-after item.

Interesting letter from Yeats, with some manuscript corrections by him: “Forgive for not having replied to your letter sent on to me by my sister, asking permission to include a poem of mine in a reading book for the National Schools. I have been without proper reading glasses till two days ago, and this has made me careless about correspondence, and have also been away from home. One always charges a fee to anthologists and you no doubt know the Society of Authors is rather stringent on that point. An established author feels not only his own interest involved but to an even greater degree the interest of authors less established. My publisher Fisher Unwin arranges matters and will tell you what the fee is. I am not quite sure what it is at the moment, so little have I to do with the matter, half of it goes to him. Write to him on the matter.”