A.E. [RUSSELL, George William]. Gods of War (AN EXCEPTIONAL ASSOCIATION COPY WITH AUTOGRAPH LETTERS, POEM & ORIGINAL SKETCH)

Dublin: Printed for Private Circulation, 1915. First edition. pp. 39, [1]. Green cloth, lettered in gilt. Initialled presentation inscriptions from the author to Shane Leslie, dated 21.1.16 on half title, bookplates and ink ownership inscriptions of Shane Leslie and Oliver Gogarty, 6 Autograph Letters signed “A.E.” to Leslie and 1 to Oliver Gogarty, 1 with a drawing, another with an autograph poem “Salutation” all tipped or laid in, ink correction on p.27 by the author, light spotting to a few pages. In nice condition.
A fine copy.

An exceptional association copy of Gods of War, printed for private circulation in 1915 by George William Russell (A.E.), poet, mystic, painter, and one of the central intellectual figures of the Irish Revival. Issued during the First World War, Gods of War reflects A.E.’s spiritual and moral response to the catastrophe of modern conflict, combining visionary symbolism with an urgent ethical critique of militarism.
This copy is richly and uniquely associated, bearing the author’s initialled presentation inscription to Shane Leslie, dated 21 January 1916, on the half-title. It further contains the bookplates and ink ownership inscriptions of Shane Leslie and Oliver St John Gogarty, linking the volume directly to two of the most influential Anglo-Irish literary and political figures of the period.
The presence of 5 Autograph Letters signed “A.E.” to Leslie, 1 to Oliver Gogarty, 1 with a drawing, and another with an autograph poem “Salutation” all tipped or laid in, ink correction on p.27 by the author elevates the book into the realm of a small personal archive. This offers rare insight into A.E.’s creative and spiritual dialogue with his contemporaries.
The correspondence, taken as a whole, illuminates A.E.’s close intellectual friendship with Leslie, writer, diplomat, and convert to Catholicism, and his engagement with Gogarty, poet, satirist, and later senator. These letters touch on literary, political, and metaphysical concerns at a moment of extraordinary tension in Irish history, immediately preceding the Easter Rising. The volume is further enhanced by an ink correction by the author on page 27, providing direct evidence of Russell’s continuing engagement with the text after publication.
LETTERS
(a) Autograph letter signed “A.E.”, dated 14 June 1933, written from 17 Rathgar Avenue, to Shane Leslie, on The Irish Academy of Letters headed paper concerning the rules and election of Leslie as an associate member. Russell encloses rules of the Academy and provides a detailed contemporary list of existing and associate members, including leading figures of the Irish literary revival and Free State cultural life. An important documentary record of A.E.’s central role in shaping Irish literary institutions during the 1930s, and a key source for the internal composition and intellectual network of the Academy at its formative stage.
The letter names the existing literary and cultural figures associated with the Irish Academy of Letters, divided broadly between officers, members, and associates. Spellings follow the letter as closely as possible, with standard forms in brackets where appropriate: George Bernard Shaw - President; W. B. Yeats - Vice-President; George Russell - Hon. Secretary; Members and associates named: Lennox Robinson; F.R. Higgins; James Stephens; Peadar O’Donnell; Brinsley MacNamara; Francis Stuart;
James Stephens; St. J. Irvine; Miss EOE Somerville; Oliver Gogarty; Michael O’Donovan (i.e. Frank O’Connor, listed under his real name); Seumas O’Sullivan; Austin Clarke; Seán O’Faoláin; Padraic Colum; Liam O’Flaherty; T. C. Murray; Miss Alice Milligan; Shan Bullock; T. E. Lawrence (Arabia); Miss Helen Waddell; John Eglinton; L.A.G. Strong; Ernest Boyd; Walter Starkie; Eugene O’Neill (U.S.A.); Stephen Gwynn and yourself (Shane Leslie). Not in Denson’s Letters from AE.
Taken together, the names form an extraordinary roll-call of Irish literary modernism and Revival-era continuity, documenting the Academy’s ambition to unite creative writers, critics, dramatists, folklorists, and international honorary figures under A.E.’s quiet but authoritative stewardship.
(b) Salutation. Three pages octavo. The presence of the autograph poem “Salutation” within this volume is of particular importance. Salutation stands as A.E.’s most direct poetic response to the Easter Rising of 1916 and to the execution of its leaders, and occupies a central place in his political and moral reckoning with the rebellion. Initially circulated privately in typescript among close friends, the poem was printed in January 1917 in a strictly limited edition of just twenty-five copies by Clement Shorter, with the author’s permission, for private distribution only. That privately printed issue differs textually from this autograph poem and is initialled by A.E. With a comment in Shane Leslie’s hand ‘script of Leonie Leslie.’
Russell’s composition of “Salutation” reflects his complex position within Irish nationalist circles. Though frequently attacked by Arthur Griffith in Nationality, Russell’s Rathgar home remained a gathering place for Sinn Féiners and cultural nationalists; arrests following one such gathering underscore the atmosphere in which the poem was conceived. His contemporaneous correspondence reveals both anguish and prophetic clarity “Here’s to you Connolly, my man / Who cast the last torch on the pile,” anticipating the “terrible beauty” of revolutionary sacrifice while expressing deep unease at political violence and state reprisal. Letters written during this period articulate his sense of helpless witness - “like a man watching an avalanche” and frame “Salutation” not as propaganda but as an elegiac moral response to irreversible events.
The survival here of an autograph version of “Salutation,” preserved alongside presentation inscriptions, authorial corrections, and a substantial series of letters to Shane Leslie and Oliver St. John Gogarty, places this copy among the most significant extant witnesses to A.E.’s private response to 1916. Together, the poem and correspondence document the evolution of Russell’s thought from immediate shock to solemn commemoration, and materially link Gods of War to the rarest and most politically charged text of his career.
(c) Autograph Letter Signed from “A.E.”, Wednesday, no dated, written from 17 Rathgar Avenue, Dublin, Wednesday, no date, to a Miss Goodtrue [?]. One page octavo. Explaining that her letter was mis-addressed (to Rathgar Road rather than Avenue), and consequently delayed in the post. “I am sorry as I would have been glad to have seen Lady Leslie again.” With a good signature, Geo. M. Russell, also marked ‘AE’ in another hand.
Presumably Lady Leslie was the wife of Sir Shane Leslie, a friend of Russell’s, a cousin of Winston Churchill through their mothers, the American-born Jerome sisters. Not in Denson.
(d) Autograph Letter Signed to Shane Leslie from Alan Denson, dated 22 March 1954, written from 12 Gordon Street, London, concerning his research into the life and writings of George William Russell (A.E.). Three pages, small quarto. He requests to look at Leslie’s letters from AE “As long ago as 1950 Mr. Diarmuid Russell, the younger son, wrote approving my research and also consented to my using his name as authorising my enquiries.” The letter outlines Denson’s independent investigations into unpublished and little-known material relating to A.E., including correspondence, critical reception, and international influences (notably Tagore), and records his consultation with surviving friends and associates of Russell.

Letters (d), (e) & (f).
(e) Autograph Letter Signed from A.E. (George William Russell) to Oliver St. John Gogarty, written from 17 Rathgar Avenue, Rathgar, Dublin, Wednesday, no date [early 1933]. Two pages octavo. Concerning the nomination of Shane Leslie to the Irish Academy of Letters. Russell sets out, with notable clarity, his distinction between ‘members’ and ‘associates,’ insisting that full membership requires demonstrable creative literary achievement: “Members have to have some creative work, Irish in character & subject ... would you send me a list of works he has written which justify his nomination as member rather than associate.” He records that W. B. Yeats had personally queried the matter: “I write because Yeats asked about this: myself I see no reason in two classes ... .” A revealing document of Russell’s critical standards and of the internal deliberations of Ireland’s foremost literary institution, illustrating the seriousness with which questions of literary merit and canon formation were treated at the highest level. Denson p.201.
(f) Autograph Letter Signed from A.E. (George William Russell) to Shane Leslie, Four pages octavo, written on two sides from 17 Rathgar Avenue, Rathgar, no date [? early November, 1914], with a sketch of a creature by Russell. “Why not join Roger Casement and Jack White in their Home Rule Campaign in Ulster? Oh, I forgot you differ on religious grounds and can’t get on the platform. Myself I would like to make it illegal to mention the words Protestant or Catholic at a political meeting for the next five years in Ireland. When you are next in Dublin come and tell me about the local phantom. When I was in Donegal I made a rough note of a creature with flames waving about him which I hope to paint but he had no clothes. He was playing along the ridges like a distraught thing. The Lord have mercy on him! I don’t understand these things. I prefer the fairy world to the world of the shades.”
In a characteristically witty and reflective passage, Russell urges Leslie, half in earnest, half in jest to consider joining Roger Casement and Jack White in their Home Rule agitation in Ulster, while lamenting the paralysing effect of sectarian division, proposing tongue firmly in cheek that the words “Protestant” and “Catholic” be banned from political meetings for five years. The letter then turns from politics to the visionary, with Russell recounting a spectral encounter in Donegal, describing a flame-wreathed, unclothed figure moving along the ridges, an image he hopes to paint, before concluding with his preference for the fairy world over the darker realm of shades. A vivid and revealing letter, blending political idealism, humour, and mystical imagination, and exemplifying A.E.’s unique synthesis of nationalism, spiritual philosophy, and visionary art. Denson p. 90.
(g) Autograph Letter Signed from A.E. (George William Russell) to Shane Leslie, written on Irish Homestead headed paper, dated 28th November, 1916. One page quarto. A highly significant contemporary letter in the immediate aftermath of the Easter Rising and executions. “There is nothing happening in Ireland except the revolving gradually of the old political parties” Russell reflects with remarkable philosophical detachment on the aftermath of the Rising, characterising Irish political life as a tragic cycle moving inexorably toward fate, likening events to classical drama, and suggesting that the true historical forces at work are “invisible ... working out a destiny.” He also announces the forthcoming publication by Macmillan Co in New York of The National Being in the United States, outlining its concern with Irish national culture and its development. A deeply revealing document of Russell’s post-Rising thought, combining political pessimism, metaphysical interpretation, and cultural nationalism at a critical juncture in modern Irish history. Not in Denson.
ADDITIONAL ASSOCIATED MATERIAL ENHANCING THE VOLUME
(i) Front Pastedown: Signatures of Shane Leslie and Oliver Gogarty; Newspaper cutting on A.E. in Washington with a verse by him; An ex libris label of Shane Leslie with verse – This volume that you borrowed, bought or took / Is mine while I am living / But dead I mind not giving / My Blessing to the keeper of my book.
(ii) On half-title: Presentation inscription from A.E., dated 21.1.2016, to Shane Leslie. Author’s correction on p. 27. With other inscriptions including on verso “Given to me in Jan 1916 by George Russell the Irish mystic and read amazingly in 1941” – Shane Leslie.
(iii) Newspaper cutting tipped on titlepage - Bookseller’s catalogue entry for an original drawing of W.B. Yeats and A.E. by Mac. “The story is told that W.B. Yeats and George Russell (A.E.) set out respectively from 82 and 84 Merrion Square to see each other … and passed at 83!” – the drawing showed how it happened.

(iv) Typed contemporary transcript of a deeply reflective farewell letter (epistle) by George William Russell (A.E.), addressed to his lifelong friend Richard Campbell, a New York jurist and corporate lawyer, whom Russell affectionately addresses as “Dear Dick.” Written during the final period of Russell’s life, the letter records his withdrawal from London to a nursing home by the sea, his rapidly failing health, and his calm, lucid acceptance of approaching death: “I feel that I am coming to the end of my work in this world and I have no fears or regrets … give my kindest regards to any of my American friends if you hear of my collapse.” In red crayon ‘AE Dying.’ The text is notable for its serenity, spiritual clarity, and absence of bitterness, contrasting sharply with the public turmoil and prophetic anger that characterized much of Russell’s wartime writing. The epistle, breathing of the personality of the noted poet and painter so well known in this country, and especially in New York, was addressed to former Judge Richard Campbell, 49 Wall Street, his boyhood friend whom he visited during his stays in New York.

(v) Autograph note in the hand of Oliver St John Gogarty, recording the death of Violet Russell, wife of George William Russell (A.E.), and reflecting Gogarty’s characteristic blend of wit, biblical allusion, and stoic consolation. The remark “He will have to go to live over his worries” offers a rare, intimate glimpse of Russell’s bereavement, while the quoted Gospel passage “If your eye sight be single, your whole body will be full of light” underscores the shared spiritual and intellectual language of the Irish literary revival circle. A poignant and highly personal fragment, linking three central figures of early twentieth-century Irish cultural life, and of particular interest for collections relating to A.E., Gogarty, and the emotional afterlife of the Revival.
An exceptional association copy of Gods of War (1915), privately printed during the First World War by George William Russell (A.E.), poet, mystic, painter, editor of The Irish Homestead, and one of the central intellectual figures of the Irish Revival. Conceived amid the moral and spiritual crisis of modern warfare, Gods of War articulates Russell’s distinctive response to violence and political upheaval: neither nationalist propaganda nor pacifist retreat, but a visionary ethical critique rooted in spiritual humanism, classical symbolism, and cultural nationalism. This copy is richly and uniquely associated, bearing the author’s initialled presentation inscription to Shane Leslie, dated 21 January 1916, only weeks before the Easter Rising. It further contains the bookplates and ownership inscriptions of both Leslie and Oliver St John Gogarty, directly linking the volume to two of the most influential Anglo-Irish literary and political figures of the period, and firmly situating it within the personal networks of the Revival.
The volume is transformed into a small but highly significant personal archive, incorporating six Autograph Letters Signed “A.E.” to Shane Leslie, one Autograph Letter Signed to Oliver Gogarty, an original pen-and-ink sketch by Russell, an autograph poem “Salutation”, a typed valedictory epistle, newspaper cuttings, and multiple contemporary annotations, together with an authorial ink correction on page 27. The cumulative effect is documentary rather than incidental: these materials provide rare, first-hand insight into Russell’s intellectual, spiritual, and emotional life across four decades, from the crisis of 1916 to the final years of his life.
Taken together, the book and letters form a coherent documentary record of A.E.’s creative life at a pivotal historical moment, linking three central figures of the Irish Revival.

[CAT 163]