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The History Sale 2015
www.adams.ie790
THE POET TO HIS BELOVED
W.B. YEATS
An autograph signed letter to ‘My dear Maud’ [Gonne], 1 pp, on his headed paper (82
Merrion Square, Dublin), dated June 13 [1928], sending her a fresh copy of his book.
‘You will find a reference to your self in “Among School Children” -- a Waterford
school I went over -- I do not think it will offend you. The book seems to me the best
I have done, it is certainly the most successful. ‘Your explanation about the loss of
the book may be near the truth but it does not account for several letters of mine to
other people not having arrived. I am exceedingly puzzled.’ With a good signature,
‘W.B. Yeats’. With a worn copy of Yeats’ The Tower, March 1928 (reprint), evidently the
book referred to, inscribed on f.e.p. ‘To Maud Gonne / from W.B. Yeats / Jun 13 1928’,
and with a correction in Yeats’ hand to Section IV of ‘Among School Children’, p. 55,
amending ‘a mass of shadows’ to read ‘a mess of shadows’. The letter accounts for
Gonne’s copy being a reprint: evidently an earlier copy went astray. ‘Among School
Children’ is among the finest of Yeats’ later works. Lines such as ‘A sixty year old
smiling public man’ (Yeats himself) have entered common memory. There is no direct
reference to Maud Gonne, though her memory can be inferred in the lines, ‘I look upon
one child or t’other there / And wonder if she stood so at that age .. / And thereupon
my heart is driven wild: / She stands before me as a living child .. O body swayed
to music, O brightening glance / How can we know the dancer from the dance?’ The
copy of The Tower here is in need of extensive restoration. The wrapper is in several
parts, lacking most of spine, the cover is stained and worn, the gutta percha is partly
perished and the prelims are dampstained at inner margins. It is, however, substantially
complete, and the text is generally clean. Books inscribed by Yeats to Gonne are very
rare, possibly because of repeated Special Branch raids on Gonne’s home during the
Civil War. Most of the Yeats-Gonne correspondence is now in an American academic
collection. Also with this lot, three fragments (one blank, others in Maud Gonne’s hand),
apparently parts of a letter from Gonne to W.B. Yeats. Provenance: Roebuck House,
Dublin home of Maud Gonne. As a collection, w.a.f.
€1,500 - €2,500
791
MAUD GONNE
A polished ebony paper knife, circa 15 ins x 1 inch, incised ‘Miss Maud Gonne, Paris /
WITH / Sol. Gillingham’s Compts. / MADE BY / PRISONERS OF WAR / CEYLON
/ 1900 / 1901.’ Throughout her life Maud Gonne was an active supporter of the rights
of prisoners of war and conscience in various countries. Her son Sean MacBride
was later a founder of Amnesty International. Sol Gillingham was a Pretoria baker of
Irish extraction, and a member of the Transvaal ’98 Committee with John MacBride
and Arthur Griffith. He represented the Transvaal committee at the ’98 celebrations
in Dublin. Also with a hand-sewn fleur-de-lys ornament, distressed. Provenance:
Roebuck House, Dublin, home of the Gonne/MacBride family.
€300 - €500
Lot 790
Lot 791