Ó MÓRDHA, Seórsa [George Moore]. An t-Úr-Gort [The Untilled Field ]. Sgéaltha le Seórsa Ó Mórḋha. Aistriġhṫhe ó‟n Sacsḃhéarla ag Pádraig Ó Súilleaḃáin.

Dublin: Sealy, Bryers & Walker, [1902]. Small quarto. pp. iv, 115. Title printed in red and black. Modern green cloth with original printed wrapper laid on to upper cover. A very good copy. Extremely rare. Gilcher A26 cites the first English edition. George Augustus Moore (1852-1933) Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist came from a Roman Catholic landed family who lived at Moore Hall on the shores of Lough Carra, County Mayo. He originally wanted to be a painter, and studied art in Paris during the 1870s. There, he befriended many of the leading French artists and writers of the day. The Untilled Field dealt with themes of clerical interference in the daily lives of the Irish peasantry, and of the issue of emigration. The stories were originally written for translation into Irish, to serve as models for other writers working in the language. Three of the translations were published in the New Ireland Review, but publication was then paused due to a perceived anti-clerical sentiment. In 1902 the entire collection was translated by Tadhg Ó Donnchadha and Pádraig Ó Súilleabháin, and published in a parallel-text edition by the Gaelic League as An-tÚr-Ghort. Moore later revised the texts for the English edition. These stories were influenced by Turgenev‟s A Sportsman’s Sketches, a book recommended to Moore by W. K. Magee, a sub-librarian of the National Library of Ireland, and had earlier suggested that Moore “was best suited to become Ireland‟s Turgenev”. The tales are recognised by some as representing the birth of the Irish short story as a literary genre. Moore dedicated this work to hid nephews who were native Irish speakers.

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