BEASLAI, Piaras. Michael Collins Soldier and Statesman (Inscribed by Richard Mulcahy)

With portrait frontispiece and other illustrations. Dublin: Talbot Press, 1937. Octavo. First edition. pp. xii, 430. Green cloth, titled in black. Signed presentation copy from Risteárd Ua Maolchatha to Alice, dated Nodlaig / 1937. A near fine copy.

Presentation copy inscribed by General Richard Mulcahy (Risteárd Ua Maolchatha) to Alice, dated Nollaig (Christmas) 1937. One of the earliest and most authoritative biographies of Michael Collins, written by Piaras Béaslaí (1881-1965), soldier, politician, Irish-language revivalist and close associate of Collins during the revolutionary period. Drawing upon first-hand knowledge and access to contemporary sources, Béaslaí produced a work that remains an indispensable account of Collins‟s life and career, published just fifteen years after his death. The recipient Alice Lyons was Michael Collins‟s personal secretary, to whom several books and items of correspondence from General Richard Mulcahy, Collins‟s closest military colleague and successor as Commander-in-Chief of the National Army are on offer.

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