O’CASEY, Sean. Drums Under the Windows. (First edition, with ALS from O’Casey to Flann Campbell with Photograph)

Frontispiece. London: Macmillan, 1945. First edition. Octavo. pp. [v], 340. Grey buckram, titled in gilt. Tipped on to front free endpaper is an autograph letter signed from Sean O’Casey to Flann Campbell. Loosely inserted is a fine photograph of O’Casey. A very good copy in price-clipped and frayed dust jacket.

Ayling & Durkan A 24.
The second volume of O’Casey’s celebrated autobiographical sequence, Drums Under the Windows continues the story begun in I Knock at the Door and chronicles the author’s emergence from the poverty of Dublin’s north inner city into the turbulent political and cultural life of the Irish capital during the years preceding the Easter Rising. Rich in character sketches, humour, and social observation, the work remains one of the most vivid memoirs of Dublin in the early twentieth century. Its title derives from the sign of the labour exchange where O’Casey sought employment, while the narrative records his involvement with the Gaelic League, trade unionism, the labour movement, and the developing currents of Irish nationalism.
Of particular interest is the autograph letter signed by O’Casey to Flann Campbell. In this interesting letter, which is attached to the front free endpaper, O’Casey says: “I couldn’t write a memoir of Jim [Larkin] within a week, even under the best of circumstances”. At that time he was trying to pull himself out of a fierce wave of depression, he goes on “ we have been snowbound; and on Wednesday night, coming home from the town, the wife slipped on an ice-patch, coming down on the back of her head “. Badly injuring herself, she was attended at their home by the family doctor, who was a Dublin man. It would appear from the letter that O’Casey managed to write a small article on Larkin. He concludes by inviting Flann and his young lady to his home while they are in the vicinity. One page octavo on Tingrith, Station Road, Totnes, headed paper. Dated February, 7th, 1947.
The letter provides a revealing glimpse into the playwright’s domestic life during his years of self-imposed exile in England and displays the warmth and informality characteristic of his correspondence.
The volume is further enhanced by a fine photographic portrait of O’Casey, depicting him in middle age and closely resembling the image reproduced on later editions of his autobiographical works. Together, the autograph letter and photograph transform the book from a standard first edition into a desirable association copy, preserving a personal connection with one of the most important figures in modern Irish drama.
Sean O’Casey (1880–1964) remains, alongside Yeats, Synge, and Beckett, one of the central figures of modern Irish theatre. His autobiographical writings are widely regarded as among the finest memoirs produced by an Irish writer in the twentieth century.

[CAT 164]