The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, Vol. 8 (of 8)

Chapter XI: Part IV: American Editions

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(COMPILED BY JOHN QUINN.)

[1892.]

Identical with English edition except for title-page and publisher’s name on back of binding and absence of publisher’s device on back cover.

1894.

Fcp. 8vo, pp. iv and 46. Grey boards with label. The frontispiece is by Aubrey Beardsley, the design being the same as that used in the English edition.

1903. Mosher’s first edition.

The Land of Heart’s Desire | By | W. B. Yeats | O Rose, thou art sick. | William Blake.

Sm. 4to. This is No. 6 of Vol. IX. of _The Bibelot_, issued in June, 1903. Grey paper cover.

Fcp. 8vo, pp. xvi and 32. Japan paper cover.

Only 32 copies were printed, during July, 1903.

Sm. 8vo, pp. vi and 36. White parchment paper.

Of this first edition 950 copies were printed on Van Gelder paper, 100 on Japan paper and 10 on pure vellum. Published in October, 1903. Later editions, each consisting of 950 copies on Van Gelder paper, are bound in grey boards with paper label.

English sheets, with new title-page.

1895.

Poems.

Copies of the English edition were imported by Copeland and Day of Boston, whose name appears on the title-page and binding of all copies.

1897.

These copies for the American market are copies of the first English edition, with the original title-page torn out after the book was bound, and the above new title-page pasted in.

1899.

Cr. 8vo, pp. viii and 110. Cloth.

The English edition was printed from duplicate plates and is identical except for imprint on title-page and the cutting out of copyright notice and imprint on verso of title-page (p. [iv]) and the imprint at end (p. [109]).

Later American editions have separate copyright notice on verso of title-page dated 1905 but are printed from the same plates and contain no additional lines.

1901.

Cr. 4to, pp. 62. Grey boards with side label.

1902.

Cr. 8vo, pp. viii and 100. Issued in grey paper cover, the first page printed from the types of the title-page.

Fifteen copies printed for copyright of which not over eight are now known. Printed for Mr. John Quinn from the author’s first draft and contains some errors corrected in the large-paper edition.

1902. Second Edition.

Printed for Mr. John Quinn from the same types as the preceding, but without the publisher’s name on title-page and without imprint on verso of title-page below copyright, and with some errors corrected. On the reverse of the half-title is the notice “Thirty copies printed | from the type, of which | this is No.________”

Large-paper copies (9-9/16ths by 5-7/16ths inches). Pale green boards with labels on front and back.

These two editions contain a dedication to Lady Gregory, dated September 19, 1902, which does not appear in any subsequent edition.

1903. Third Edition.

Globe 8vo, pp. 216. Cloth.

This edition was considerably revised and contains some new passages. The new dedication to Lady Gregory is dated February, 1903.

Also a large-paper edition, printed on Japan paper, and limited to 100 copies.

The Celtic Twilight. Revised and enlarged edition of 1902.

The English sheets were imported and bound in America, back of cover being lettered “The Celtic | Twilight | W. B. Yeats. | The Macmillan | Company”

1903.

Ideas of Good and | Evil. By W. B. Yeats | The Macmillan Company | New York. MCMIII

English sheets with new title-page as above.

Cr. 8vo, pp. vi and 90. Cloth.

1904.

Globe 8vo, pp. viii and 116. Cloth.[L]

Also a large-paper edition, limited to 100 copies.

These American editions do not contain the bars of music or the “Note on the Music” of the English edition.

Medium 8vo, pp. x and 58. Grey boards.

Printed on cream-coloured old hand-made Italian paper, 100 copies only, for Mr. John Quinn.

1906.

Cr. 8vo, pp. xiv and 340. Cloth.

CONTENTS.

_Preface._ [Dated _In the Seven Woods_, July, 1906.]

_Early Poems: I. Ballads and Lyrics._

_Early Poems: II. The Wanderings of Oisin._

_Early Poems: III. The Rose._

_The Wind Among the Reeds._

_In the Seven Woods._

_The Old Age of Queen Maeve._

_Baile and Aillinn._

1907.

Cr. 8vo, pp. x and 528.

CONTENTS.

_Preface._ [Dated December, 1906.]

_The Countess Cathleen._

_The Land of Heart’s Desire._

_The Shadowy Waters._ [New version.]

_On Baile’s Strand._ [New version.]

_The King’s Threshold._ [New version.]

_Deirdre._

_Appendix I_: The Legendary and Mythological Foundation
of the Plays and Poems.

_Appendix II_: The Dates and Places of Performance of
the Plays.

_Appendix III_: _Acting Version of ‘The Shadowy
Waters.’_

_Appendix IV_: The Work of the National Theatre
Society at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin: A Statement of
Principles.

These two volumes form the first collected edition of the author’s verse, lyric and dramatic. It is to America’s credit that this first collected edition appeared in America.

1908.

Cr. 8vo, pp. xiv and 210. Cloth.

CONTENTS.

_The Unicorn from the Stars._ By Lady Gregory and W. B.
Yeats.

_Cathleen ni Hoolihan._

_The Hour-Glass: A Morality._

Fcp. 8vo, pp. viii and 34. Grey boards with label.

Fifty copies only printed.

NOTE.

Of the first separate edition of _The Hour-Glass_, described in Part I. under date 1903, only twelve copies were printed. Of these, six went for English copyright, two were lost in the post, the printer kept one, one belongs to Mr. W. B. Yeats, one to Lady Gregory and one to Mr. John Quinn.

The essay _Modern Irish Poetry_, which appeared as an Introduction to _A Book of Irish Verse_, London, 1895 (see Part II.), was reissued with additions in _Irish Literature_, Vol. III., Philadelphia, 1904.

THE END.

_Printed by_ A. H. BULLEN, _at The Shakespeare Head Press,
Stratford-on-Avon._

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES:

[A] _Poems of Spenser: Selected and with an Introduction by W. B. Yeats._ (T. C. and E. C. Jack, Edinburgh, N.D.)

[B] Rose Kavanagh, the poet, wrote to her religious adviser from, I think, Leitrim, where she lived, and asked him to get her the works of Mazzini. He replied, ‘You must mean Manzone.’

[C] I have heard him say more than once, ‘I will not say our people know good from bad, but I will say that they don’t hate the good when it is pointed out to them as a great many people do in England.’

[D] A small political organizer told me once that he and a certain friend got together somewhere in Tipperary a great meeting of farmers for O’Leary on his coming out of prison, and O’Leary had said at it: ‘The landlords gave us some few leaders, and I like them for that, and the artisans have given us great numbers of good patriots, and so I like them best: but you I do not like at all, for you have never given us any one.’ I have known but one that had his moral courage, and that was a woman with beauty, to give her courage and self-possession.

[E] This version, though Dr. Hyde went some way with it, has never been published. I do not know why.—W.B.Y., _March, 1908_.

[F] Reprinted from _The Wanderings of Oisin_, 1889.

[G] Reprinted from _The Countess Cathleen_, 1892.

[H] Written for the first production of _The King’s Threshold_ in Dublin, but not used, as, owing to the smallness of the company, nobody could be spared to speak it.—W.B.Y., 1904.

[I] Reprinted from _The Shadowy Waters_, 1900.

[J] Reprinted from _In the Seven Woods_, 1903.

[K] ‘The Green Sheaf,’ No. IV., published as a supplement a reproduction of a pastel by Mr. Yeats, _The Lake at Coole_.

[L] _The Pot of Broth_, contained in this volume, originally appeared in _The Gael_, (an American Monthly Magazine, printed in New York, partly in Irish and partly in English,) September, 1903.

* * * * *

Transcriber’s Notes:

Obvious punctuation errors repaired. Superscripted fractions are shown

Page 23, “he” changed to “be” (may be greater)

Page 35, “maybe” changed to “may be” (it may be, generations)

Page 236, “p.” changed to “pp.” (_Ghosts_, pp. 128-129)

Page 247, “esssay” changed to “essay” (essay originally appeared)

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The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, Vol. 8 (of 8)Chapter XI: Part IV: American Editions

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