The Secret Rose.: With Illustrations by J. B. Yeats.

London: Lawrence & Bullen, Limited,, 1897. Sir Hugh Walpole's copy First edition, first issue binding with "Lawrence & Bullen" at the foot of spine. This copy is from the library of Sir Hugh Walpole (1884-1941), with his Brackenburn gilt-embossed dark red paper book label on the front pastedown. Walpole and Yeats moved in the same literary circles in London; both attended the literary gatherings of Sylvia Lynd, the poet and fellow judge for The Book Society club, established by Walpole in 1921. With The Secret Rose, Yeats was at the height of his powers as a prose mythographer, bringing together the two key loci of his imagination, the Celtic folklore of his native Ireland and the alchemical mysteries with which he became familiar through his interactions with the Golden Dawn in London and Paris. These are represented by two characters, later the subject of their own books but here appearing for the first time: Red Hanrahan, the wandering poet (or "gleeman") whom Yeats stirringly remembered in The Tower (1928), and Michael Robartes, whom Yeats co-opted as central to the origins of his spiritual discoveries in A Vision (1925). Octavo. Original blue cloth, spine and boards lettered and elaborately decorated in gilt, edges uncut. Frontispiece and 6 plates by John B. Yeats, title page printed in red and black. Contemporary ownership inscription to front free endpaper. Extremities gently bumped, binding rubbed, small patch of surface discolouration to rear board, gilt to covers bright, spots of foxing to outer leaves, else clean. A very good copy. Symons, p. 8; Wade 21.