To The Little Princess. An Epistle. With thirteen initials and decorations by Lawrence A. Patterson. San Francisco: Johnck & Seeger, 1930. First Edition, Limited Issue. Pp, 31, untrimmed. Quarter linen, blue paper boards, with title label & illustration to upper cover. Light fading to boards; gift inscription to front free endpaper, otherwise a fine bright copy.

Limited Edition of 400 Copies, Signed by Ella Young & the designed John J. Johnck.

With additional material loosely inserted: Publication flyer and eight-page pamphlet entitled ‘Ella Young and Magic.’

Following an eventful youth during which she worked as a writer for Sinn Fein and helped smuggle guns to Irish Republican forces, Young emigrated to the United States in 1925, and spent the rest of her life based out of California. She held a chair for Irish Myth and Lore at the University of California, Berkeley for seven years.

“According to both friends and casual observers, the air of otherworldliness present in Young’s writing also spilled over into her everyday persona, causing her friend and fellow writer Padraic Colum to refer to has as ‘a reincarnated Druidess.’