YEATS, William Butler.
 
The Wild Swans at Coole; published by Macmillan and Co., London in 1919.
 
Description
 
Octavo. Original dark blue cloth, front cover and spine lettered and decorated in gilt to a design by Thomas Sturge Moore, bottom and fore-edges untrimmed.
First edition, first impression, trade issue. One of 1,500 copies printed.
Inscribed on the front free endpaper: ‘Miss Gunn, From The Women's Literature Class. 1918–1919.’ The recipient was Elizabeth Maud Gunn, a schoolteacher and scholar of Celtic languages, who married Donald MacRae in 1920. She was the mother of the distinguished British sociologist and author, Donald Gunn MacRae (1921–1997).
A firm, square copy. Spine ends and corners lightly bumped; cloth clean with the gilt design exceptionally bright and sharp on both the front board and spine. Internal contents clean and free of foxing, with the hinges fully intact. The rear board exhibits a cluster of small puncture marks that pierce the cloth and penetrate through to the rear pages, causing minor localized indentation to the final few leaves without loss of text. A desirable association copy.