1. [Crawford, Mabel] Anonymous.

Through Algeria.

London, Richard Bentley, 1863. 12 cm x 19 cm. Frontispiece, XVI, 362 pages. The frontispiece is a colour-lithograph of El Kantara. Attractive hardcover [publisher’s original purple cloth] with gilt lettering and ornamental design on spine. Gilt lettering and richly decorative tooling on front board. Blind tooling on back board also. Pebbled boards. All edges gilt. Very good condition with only minor signs of external wear. Cloth frayed at spine head and tail. Slight cracking to gutter between front pastedown and endpaper. Binding still very good and firm. Some foxing to endpapers. Interior very clean and bright. Some untrimmed pages. Handwritten message on front endpaper reads “A Prize gained by Louisea Mells for Progress in her French studies, Xmas. 1869. Magdalen House.” An extremely rare, rather scarce, early publication by an Irish Woman Traveller in Africa who also lived and helped through the Irish Famine and was not only an early Feminist but also one of the first members of the Suffragette Movement.

2. Smithson, Annie M.P.

Her Irish Heritage [″With the Printed Dedication: Dedicated to the Men who died Easter 1916”].

First Edition of her first book. Dublin, The Talbot Press, [no year (1917)]. Octavo. 270 pages. Hardcover / original publisher’s cloth-binding with decroative Celtic-Knot-Design. Very good condition with only minor signs of wear. This is the best preserved version of this work we have ever seen. With a gift-inscription from the year 1934 (not from Smithson).

3. Yeats, William Butler / [George [Georgie] Yeats / Mrs. Eva Hempel / Eduard Hempel].

Pages from a Diary Written in Nineteen Hundred and Thirty. [Signed / Inscribed by George Yeats to Mrs. [Eva] Hempel, wife of german ambassador to Ireland during World War II].

No.8 / 200 copies, of the original limited edition. Dublin, The Cuala Press, 1944 [September 1944]. Octavo. 58 pages. Original Hardcover. Inscribed by George Yeats on the front free endpaper: “Mrs. Hempel from George Yeats, April 1944”. This has to be of course “April 1945”. The impossibility of signing/inscribing a book in April 1944 if it was only published in September 1944 is easily explained with the classic everyday-mistake of still writing the previous year in the first few months of the following year. A stunning association. The signature and inscription is a solid match to George Yeats’ autographs in her later hand and William Butler Yeats and George Yeats were frequent visitors to the Hempel’s in Dublin. In addition, the low number of the edition (8/200) suggests this being one of the reference copies given to George Yeats, who contributed heavily to the volume and even added an explanatory note (in print) verso the titlepage. This copy is near fine, bound in the publisher’s quarter buckram over yellow, paper-covered boards. The books pages remained unopened. Eva Hempel’s husband Eduard Hempel is one of the most controversial figures in modern Irish history, excoriated by some as ‘Hitler’s man’, defended by others such as the country’s first President, Eamon De Valera. Certainly, Hempel presented William Butler Yeats in 1938 with a copy of ‘Germany Speaks’ whose inscription described an ‘unforgettable afternoon’ spent together by Yeats and Hempel. Eduard Hempel and his wife were accepted socialites in the Dublin world of World War II, famously receiving a condolence call by de Valera upon the death of Hitler. Eduard Hempel and his wife Eva were granted asylum in Ireland after world war II and stayed way beyond the end of World War II.

4. Gregory, Lady.

A Book of Saints and Wonders put down here by Lady Gregory according to the Old Writings and the Memory of the People of Ireland.

Identical Reprint of the Original Dun Emer Press Edition from 1906. Shannon, Irish University Press, 1971. 16cm x 24cm 34 pages. Original Hardcover. Excellent condition with only very minor signs of external wear. Tiny inkstride on the front free endpaper. Name of preowner in ink on halftitle.