Stephens, James.

The Crock of Gold.

London, Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1946. 12,5 cm x 18 cm. 312 pages. Original Hardcover with illustrated dustjacket in protective Mylar. Foxing to free endpapers and edges. Creasing,tearing to dustjacket, otherwise in Very good condition with only minor signs of wear.

The Crock of Gold is a comic novel written by Irish author James Stephens and first published in 1912.
A mixture of philosophy, Irish folklore and the “battle of the sexes”, it consists of six books, Book 1 – The Coming of Pan, Book 2 – The Philosophers Journey, Book 3 – The Two Gods, Book 4 – The Philosophers Return, Book 5 – The Policemen, Book 6 – The Thin Woman’s Journey. (Wikipedia)

James Stephens (9 February 1880 – 26 December 1950) was an Irish novelist and poet.
James’ mother worked in the home of the Collins family of Dublin and was adopted by them. James was committed to the Meath Protestant Industrial School for Boys as a small child and spent his childhood there. He attended school with his adopted brothers Thomas and Richard (Tom and Dick) before graduating as a solicitor’s clerk. They competed and won several athletic competitions despite James’ tiny stature (he stood 4’10” in his socks). He was known affectionately as ‘Tiny Tim’. He was much enthralled by the tales of military valour of his adoptive family and would have become a soldier except for his height.
By the early 1900s James was increasingly inclined to socialism and the Irish language (he spoke and wrote Irish) and by 1912 was a dedicated Irish Republican. He was a close friend of the 1916 leader Thomas MacDonagh, who was then editor of “The Irish Review” and deputy headmaster in St Enda’s, the radical bilingual school run by PH Pearse and would be manager of the Irish Theatre, and spent much time with MacDonagh in 1911. His growing nationalism brought a schism with his adopted family, but probably won him his job as registrar in the National Gallery of Ireland, where he worked between 1915 and 1925, having previously had an ill-paid job with the Mecredy solicitors’ firm.
James Stephens produced many retellings of Irish myths and fairy tales. His retellings are marked by a rare combination of humour and lyricism (Deirdre, and Irish Fairy Tales are often especially praised). He also wrote several original novels (The Crock of Gold, Etched in Moonlight, Demi-Gods) based loosely on Irish fairy tales. The Crock of Gold in particular has achieved enduring popularity and has often been reprinted.
Stephens began his career as a poet under the tutelage of “Æ” (George William Russell). Stephens’s first book of poems, Insurrections, was published in 1909. His last book, Kings and the Moon (1938), was also a volume of verse. (Wikipedia)

• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 28792AB

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