(Click image for full-size photo)

 26
William Butler Yeats


Estrangement: Being Some Fifty Thoughts

Dublin: Cuala Press, 1926. Bra PR 5906 E87.

Originally called Dum Emer Press, Cuala Press was initially part of a larger enterprise that was intended to stimulate Irish industry and give training and employment to Irish women. In 1908, after the name change, Elizabeth Yeats, sister of the poet William Butler Yeats, remained the principal press worker, obtaining layout and design advice from William Morris’s old friend Emery Walker. Even though the Press was founded ‘in the hope of reviving this beautiful Craft’ (Elizabeth Yeats), the productions are ‘workmanlike’, and their merits lie in their content, not in the typography and final presentation. Authors published by Cuala included Lady Gregory, John Masefield, and of course W. B. Yeats. This copy, one of 300, is from Charles Brasch’s collection.

<