The earliest edition of the poem Easter, 1916 is one of the rarest of W.B. Yeats’s publications. Published privately by Clement Shorter in 1917, the copy on display is the fourth of only 25 copies produced, and is inscribed by Shorter on 'August 17, 1917.' Clement Shorter was the husband of poet Dora Sigerson, daughter of UCD Professor George Sigerson.
Yeats’s poem Easter, 1916 was not available for wider readership until the later, slightly revised version (which omitted the comma in the title) appeared in The New Statesman in October 1920. Also on view in this Exhibition are two letters written by W.B. Yeats, including one written expressing surprise that the recipient, a Chicago journalist, knew of the publication of the privately-circulated Easter, 1916.
The exhibition is made possible through a major donation of W.B. Yeats materials (including the very rare Easter, 1916) by Joseph M. Hassett, given in honour of the late Professor Gus Martin. UCD Library also wishes to acknowledge the deposit by the American Ireland Fund of this and other valuable Yeats material.
