Considerable publicity has already been given to one lot included in next Wednesday and Thursday's books and manuscripts auction being held by Mealy's in Dublin. This is the collection of 17 letters written by Eamon de Valera to his young wife Sinead between 1911 and 1920 which is expected to fetch £15,000-£20,000.
However, given that the two-day sale contains more than 1,400 lots, there are plenty of other fascinating items on offer. Among the most important of these is lot 675, an early manuscript draft by W B Yeats of one of his most celebrated poems, The Lake Isle of Innisfree. Written in ink on the reverse of a sheet of headed notepaper, the text may not be in Yeats's own hand (instead, possibly those of a secretary or assistant), but the pencil corrections and syllable counts were certainly made by the poet.
While the basic shape and rhythm of the poem are those of the finished version, there are some 10 changes where words have been altered or dropped. Among the most obvious of these is in the last verse, where this text reads "I will arise and go then . . ." as opposed to the published "go now".
The document has an estimate of £5,500-£7,500, while an 1889 first edition of his The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems (lot 233) is expected to make £500-£700. In fact, there are more than 30 first or limited editions of the poet's work included in this sale. Yeats's close friend and co-founder of the Abbey Theatre, Augusta Gregory, is also represented in the same auction by lot 678, a series of 11 pages of typed notes from her journal headed `Conscription, April 1918" describing the local campaign in Kiltartan against the threat of conscription and also her efforts to have the disputed Lane pictures returned to Ireland. It has a pre-sale estimate of £600-£1,000.
Twice that price is expected for lot 593, a set of three folio scrapbooks containing some 200 Irish political ballads which Lady Gregory had collected and compiled between 1880 and 1930. The first volume contains a large number of Boer War ballads, some written from the Boer point of view, while the later books cover the War of Independence and the Civil War.
Lady Gregory's son Robert also features in the sale, thanks to the presence of several sketches by this artist, who tragically died shortly before the end of the first World War. Lot 594, a collection of seven watercolours, carries an estimate of £700-£1,000 and the following lot, a set of five portrait sketches in pen and chalk, £250-£400. Finally, among the many fascinating printed books included in this auction is an 1897 first edition of Dublin-born author Bram Stoker's Dracula (lot 1133, £200-£300), a signed first edition of Katherine Tynan's 1908 Experiences (lot 841, £180-£250) and an 1888 first edition of Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince and Other Stories with illustrations by Walter Crane and Jacomb Hood (lot 461, £350-£400).
Finally, among the many fascinating printed books included in this auction is a 1897 first edition of author Bram Stoker's Dracula (lot 1133, £200£300), a signed first edition of Katherine Tynan's 1908 Experiences (lot 841, £180£250) and an 1888 first edition of Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince and Other Stories with illustrations by Walter Crane and Jacomb Hood (lot 461, £350-£400). Beginning at 10.30 a.m. each day, the sale takes place in Dublin's Tara Tower Hotel.
