The Coming Of Lugh. A Celtic Wonder-Tale
Dublin: Maunsel & Co., Ltd, 1909. First Edition. Soft Cover. Fine. Bound in original slate blue pictorial wrappers, lettered in silver with yapp edges. Small quarto - 16 pp plus four pages of beautiful and charming color illustrations - all by the incomparable Maude Gonne (1866-1953). This beautiful little book by Ella Young (1867-1956), begins with this gentle caress - Mananaan Mac Lir who rules the ocean took the little Sun-God, Lugh, in his arms and held him up so that he could see the whole of Ireland with the waves whispering about it everywhere. "Say farewell to the mountains and rivers and the big trees and the flowers in the grass, O Lugh, for you are coming away with me." The child stretched out his hands and cried - "Good-bye, mountains and flowers and rivers; some day I will come back to you." The artistic union of Ella Young with Maud Gonne is such a perfect marriage of talents, passions (both artistic and political) and suffragette solidarity. They were ardent supporters of Irish independence. They shared a flat in Paris for a while. It is surmised that Ella fell in love with Maude, which is no surprise because it seems that everyone who met her fell in love - most famously, the somewhat obsessive and well documented love of William Butler Yeats, who claimed her as his muse. This is Ella Young's second published book. Four copies only listed on OCLC Library Data-Base. This copy is in remarkably fine condition and, considering it has a soft binding, an even more remarkable survivor. Needless to say, now extremely rare.
Price: $1,500.00