The Wild Swans at Coole, other Verses and A Play in Verse. Dublin: Cuala Press, 1917. First Edition. Pp, 47. Quarter linen, lavender paper boards, title printed in black to upper cover, title label to spine. Covers lightly faded and toned, contents in very good condition. Publisher’s advertisement slip loosely inserted.

Published in an edition of 400 Copies.

The play ‘At The Hawks Well’ included at the end of the collection explores Yeats’s eternal search for immortality. First performed in 1916 this is its first appearance in print. A trade edition of ‘The Wild Swans At Coole’ was published by Macmillan & Co. in 1919 with eleven poems added including the first book appearances of ‘In Memory of Major Robert Gregory’ and ‘An Irish Airman Foresees His Death.’

Coole Park was the famous country home of Lady Gregory. Yeats’s home at Thoor Ballylee was just three miles away. Yeats, O’Casey, Synge, Shaw and most of the writers of the Irish Renaissance found Coole a place of inspiration. The house and grounds were immortalised in Yeats’s poems ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’ and ‘Coole Park,’ and much of his poetry contains imagery inspired by his experiences there.