SHANE, Elizabeth. Tales of the Donegal Coast and Islands.

London: Selwyn & Blount, 1921. First edition. Crown octavo. pp. 75, [1]. Tan cloth, title on printed label on spine. Loosely inserted is the publisher’s flier bookmark. A fine copy in exceedingly rare dust jacket.
A charming collection of stories by Elizabeth Shane (1865-1942), the pseudonym of Louise Catherine Dobbs, one of the most accomplished literary interpreters of rural Ulster in the early twentieth century. Living for much of her life in County Donegal, Shane drew inspiration from the landscape, folklore, language, and traditions of the north-west, producing a body of work that occupies a distinctive place in the literature of the Irish Literary Revival. The stories gathered here are rooted in the rugged coastline and offshore islands of Donegal and preserve many of the beliefs, customs, and oral traditions of communities whose way of life was already undergoing profound change. Combining folklore, local legend, humour, and keen observation, Shane captures the character of the region with sympathy and authenticity. Her writings are particularly valued for their evocation of everyday life among fishermen, small farmers, and island communities, and for the manner in which they preserve aspects of a disappearing Gaelic culture.
Copies in the original dust jacket are of the utmost rarity, the fragile jackets seldom having survived the passage of a century. An exceptionally desirable example of one of Shane’s scarcer publications.

[CAT 164]