Details
YEATS, W. B. Autograph letter signed to 'Miss Johnson', 82 Merrion Square, Dublin, 'June 3', n.y. [1912?], one page, 8° (slightly discoloured and creased); and an autograph letter signed by 'Lily' Yeats (his sister) to Lionel Johnson ('Hal'), Dublin, 25 June 1925, 1¼ pages, 8°, including an explanatory note in a different hand, both letters loosely inserted in: W.B. YEATS. Poems. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1913. 8° (205 x 135mm). Portrait frontispiece. (Scattered spotting, occasional marginal tears.) Original blue cloth gilt (extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance: Lucy Musker (bookplate on upper pastedown of volume) -- the Johnson family, and by descent.
A LETTER OF THANKS FOR MISS JOHNSON'S COPYING OF 'THAT MOST INTERESTING ARMSTRONG MSS. IT HAS GIVEN ME AN ADMIRABLE FACT FOR THE NEW EDITION OF MY "KANVA"', and sending a cheque for £3-10-0. 'Kanva', later re-titled 'The Indian on God', and 'The Indian on Himself', was published first in 1885 in the Dublin University Review, and in 1889 in The Wanderings of Oisin. In the 1913 edition of the Poems the verses are included in 'Crossways' (pp. 209-212). Lily Yeats' letter refers to the ancestry of Lionel Johnson's wife, Horatia, whom she had erroneously supposed to be descended from Lord Nelson's daughter. Lionel (or 'Hal') was a cousin, descended from Yeats' uncle, Matthew Yeats and Miss Johnson was presumably a member of the same family. (3)
A LETTER OF THANKS FOR MISS JOHNSON'S COPYING OF 'THAT MOST INTERESTING ARMSTRONG MSS. IT HAS GIVEN ME AN ADMIRABLE FACT FOR THE NEW EDITION OF MY "KANVA"', and sending a cheque for £3-10-0. 'Kanva', later re-titled 'The Indian on God', and 'The Indian on Himself', was published first in 1885 in the Dublin University Review, and in 1889 in The Wanderings of Oisin. In the 1913 edition of the Poems the verses are included in 'Crossways' (pp. 209-212). Lily Yeats' letter refers to the ancestry of Lionel Johnson's wife, Horatia, whom she had erroneously supposed to be descended from Lord Nelson's daughter. Lionel (or 'Hal') was a cousin, descended from Yeats' uncle, Matthew Yeats and Miss Johnson was presumably a member of the same family. (3)
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