Dun Emer Press
| Company type | Publishing |
|---|---|
| Founded | William Butler Yeats |
| Founder | 1902 |
| Headquarters | Ireland |
The Dun Emer Press (fl. 1902–1908) was an
History
In 1902,
The Dun Emer studio and press were named after Emer, daughter of Forgall Monach, wife of the hero Cúchulainn in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, a figure famous for her artistic skills as well as her beauty.[3] The title-page device of the Dun Emer Press was designed by Elinor Monsell and shows Emer standing underneath a tree. Monsell also created the symbol of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, which depicts Maeve with a wolfhound.[7] The focus of the Press was on publishing literary work by Irish authors,[8] and Elizabeth and Lily Yeats's younger brother, the artist Jack Butler Yeats, did much of the illustration work.[5]
In 1904, the Dun Emer crafts studio was organized into two parts, the
The Dun Emer Press produced limited editions of books, printed by hand in the manner of William Morris's Kelmscott Press.[11] The texts it published were written or selected by W. B. Yeats,[12] who was the press's literary editor and who also subsidized its operations, which lacked profitability.[13] In its prospectus issued early in 1903, the press boasted of "a good eighteenth century fount of type" and "paper made of linen rags and without bleaching chemicals".[14]
As well as books, the Press also printed broadsheets designed by Jack Yeats, and hand-coloured greeting cards.[13] In 1908, after the Press had produced eleven literary titles, the different elements of the Dun Emer studio separated completely, with Gleeson retaining the Dun Emer name. The Yeats sisters left Dundrum and took the new name Cuala for their operations, Elizabeth establishing the Cuala Press at Churchtown, Dublin.[15][16]
List of books published by the press
- W. B. Yeats, In the Seven Woods: being poems of the Irish heroic age (The Dun Emer press, 1903) [17][18]
- George William Russell, The Nuts of Knowledge, lyrical poems old and new (The Dun Emer press, 1903)[17][18]
- Douglas Hyde, The Love Songs of Connacht, being the fourth chapter of the songs of Connacht, collected and translated by Douglas Hyde (Dun Emer press, 1904)[17][18]
- W. B. Yeats, Stories of Red Hanrahan (The Dun Emer press, 1904)[17][18]
- Lionel Pigot Johnson, Twenty one poems written by Lionel Johnson, selected by William Butler Yeats (The Dun Emer Press, 1904)[17][18]
- William Kirkpatrick Magee, Some Essays and Passages by John Eglinton, selected by William Butler Yeats (Dun Emer Press, 1905)[17][18]
- William Allingham, Sixteen poems, by William Allingham, Selected by William Butler Yeats (The Dun Emer press, 1905)[17][18]
- George William Russell, By Still Waters; lyrical poems old and new by A. E. (The Dun Emer Press, 1906)[17][18]
- Katharine Tynan, Twenty one poems; selected by W. B. Yeats (Dun Emer press, 1907)[17][18]
- W. B. Yeats, Discoveries; a volume of essays by William Butler Yeats (Dun Emer press, 1907)[17][18]
References
- ^ John Sheehy, The Rediscovery of Ireland's Past: The Celtic Revival 1830–1930 (Thames and Hudson, 1980), p. 158
- ^ William M. Murphy, Dun Emer, 1902–1908
- ^ a b Elizabeth Yeats
- ^ Sheila Pim, 'Dun Emer: The Origins', in Irish Arts Review (1984-1987), Vol. 2, No. 2 (Summer, 1985), pp. 18-22
- ^ a b Cuala/Dun Emer Press at ubc.ca
- ^ Shapley, Maggie (2013). "Poole, Ruth Lane (1885 - 1974)". The Australian Women's Register.
- ^ Elizabeth Corbet Yeats at princeton.edu
- ^ Dun Emer Press Archived 2009-05-25 at the Wayback Machine at missouri.edu
- ^ Sheehy, op. cit., , p. 161
- ^ Paul Larmour, 'The Dun Emer Guild', in Irish Arts Review (1984-1987), Vol. 1, No. 4 (Winter, 1984), pp. 24-28
- ^ Robin Skelton, 'Twentieth-Century Irish Literature and the Private Press Tradition: Dun Emer, Cuala, & Dolmen Presses 1902-1963' in The Massachusetts Review, vol. 5, no. 2 (Winter 1964), pp. 368-377
- ^ Robert Hogan, The Macmillan Dictionary of Irish Literature (1980), p. 182
- ^ a b Patrick Maume, Dun Emer Press (from The Oxford Companion to Irish History, 2007) at encyclopedia.com
- ^ David Holdeman, Much labouring: the texts and authors of Yeats's first modernist books (1997) p. 32 online
- ^ Elizabeth Yeats at princeton.edu (Unseen Hands: Women Printers, Binders and Book Designers)
- ^ Dun Emer Press at encyclopedia.com
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DUN EMER & CUALA PRESS at uflib.ufl.edu (University of Florida web site)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liam Miller, The Dun Emer Press (New York: The Typophiles, 1974)
External links
- Dun Emer Press publications at Internet Archive (scanned books original editions)
- Fifty Years of the Cuala Press by Ernest C. Mariner Colby Library Quarterly, series 3, no.11, August 1953, p. 171-183.