The Complete Poems of Francis Ledwidge. With Introductions by Lord Dunsany. London: Herbert Jenkins, 1919. First Edition. Pp, 112. Frontispiece portrait plate. Green cloth, title in gilt to spine, covers lightly faded, with previous owner’s name to front free endpaper, otherwise a good copy.

Francis Ledwidge (1887-1917), also known as the peasant poet of Meath, was killed in action in Flanders in July 1917.

Lord Dunsany wrote in The Irish Times: ‘ I never wished to handicap him by exaggerated praise, but now that no mistake of mine can hurt him, if mistake it be. I give my opinion that, if Ledwidge had lived, this lover of all seasons in which the blackbird sings, would have surpassed even Burns, and Ireland would have lawfully claimed, as she may do even yet ,the greatest of peasant singers.’