The Green Fool. London: Martin Brian & O’Keefe, 1971. Second Edition. Pp, 350. A nice bright copy in dust jacket (two residual marks from labels to upper cover).

First published by Michael Joseph in 1938, the first issue was taken out of publication due to a libel action against the publisher by St. John Gogarty & reissued with the offending paragraph removed. 

The well-known Irish poet, author & politician -Oliver St. John Gogarty (who was the inspiration for Buck Mulligan in James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’) claimed that he was libeled by a passage on page 300. Gogarty took exception to the original published version: “I mistook Gogarty’s white-robed maid for his wife – or his mistress. I expected every poet to have a spare wife.” The withdrawn copies were then reissued with a cancel page amending the text to: “I mistook Gogarty’s white-robed maid for his wife – not knowing whether he had a wife or not.”

‘The Green Fool paints an entirely fascinating picture of the adolescence of a young man in a patriarchal society in Ireland, capturing the very essence of Irish rural life.’