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

Volume 2 / Part 4 — PART IV. AMERICAN EDITIONS. (COMPILED BY JOHN QUINN.)

Reading edition

[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 (9⁹/₁₆^ths by 5⁷/₁₆^ths 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:

Notes in this chapter

Note 1 · The Pot of Broth, contained in this volume, originally appeared in The Gael, (an American Monthly Magazine, printed in New York, partly in I