Search Results: Ireland from Louise Aird

This is a first edition of An Anthology of Modern Irish Poetry, edited by the American academic Wes Davis. It is a comprehensive representation of Irish poetic achievement in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, from poets such as Austin Clarke and Samuel Beckett, to those who came of age in the turbulent '60s, including Seamus Heaney and Michael Longley; to a new generation of Irish writers such as David Wheatley and Sinéad Morrissey. Each poet is represented by a generous number of poems--there are 800 poems; the table of contents is 27 pages. There are Nobel Prize winners, relative unknowns, by those working in English and Gaelic (translated). There is a historical overview, lots of notes and a short essay on each poet.
976 pages. Lovely paper.
Minor wear to the (unclipped) dust jacket.
There is a crease in the table of contents pages, which appears to be a printing issue.
But there is no evidence that the book has been read. It's in perfect condition.

This is a first edition of the beautiful best-selling cookbook published by the Avoca Cafe in 2000. Avoca started out as an artisinal Dublin shop (the legal name of the company is Avoca Handweavers). Then they started offering breads and biscuits, then opening cafes; now they have about a dozen throughout Ireland. They finally decided to publish a cookbook and it became a runaway best-seller. (They've since published 5 more.)This is a copy of that first book. It has been leafed through but not read and not used for cooking.So there are tiny bits of shelf-wear to the cover and spine, but the inside is pristine.Recipes focus on fresh and healthy.Contents:Soups, Salads, Fish & Chicken, Meat, Vegetable Main Courses, Breads, Tea Time & Dessert, Relishes, Sundries.It's soft cover but heavy; 8 1/4" x 10".194 pages including 120 easy recipes and dozens of gorgeous photos.

This book is in good condition. Edited, with a Glossary, by W.J. Craig, M.A., Trinity College, Dublin. Including the Glossary, it is 1264 pages.
It needs some TLC; the spine has loosened a little and there are some marks on the covers to be removed.
The cover is dark red with a nice stamped design on the front and back. On the front cover, the word 'Shakespeare' appears in gold. On the spine, it says, in gold, 'The Works of Shakespeare'. There is a small ink mark on the cover. On the back cover, there are 4 small white dots that look almost like bleach. The pages have darkened. There is shelf wear to the spine, and at the top of the spine, there is a 1/4" tear.On the inside front cover page, there is an inscription: 'To Bert, Wishing him many happy returns of the day. From John, 25/1/11'. There is a full-page black and white portrait of Shakespeare across from the title page.
Hidden under the paper covering the inside back cover was an envelope marked 'Derby 1957'. Inside that was a ticket to the… Read More

The Courtship of Prince Charming, by F Frankfort Moore
258 pages, on thick paper
Red Cloth Boards with Black Design & Printing on the spine
Frank Frankfort Moore (1855-1931) was an Irish dramatist, biographer, novelist and poet. Born in Limerick, Ireland, Moore worked as a journalist before gaining fame as an author of fiction.
I contacted the Local Studies Department at the Limerick City Library, and got this response:
"Congratulations on picking up a bit of a rarity there!Moore was a fairly prolific author over a period of more than 40 years.The book in question is titled The Courtship of Price Charming, in the British Museum Catalogue of Printed Books to 1955 and the first edition of it was in1920, published by W. Collins, Sons & Co., London."
I have the email if you want it.
Provenance
It bears the stamp of 'John Rigby, Dealer in Watches & Jewellery, Kirkham'. So, at some point, someone bought it in Lancashire.
It then became the property of Jean Coulthard, OC OBC; she was a prominent Canadian… Read More

This is a second printing of Discovering Britain & Ireland, the best-selling National Geographic coffee table book published in 1987.
It is 448 pages and contains 442 full-color panoramic photographs and 22 maps, all capturing the essence of everyday life surrounded by the rolling green hills and architecture of Britain and Ireland. This volume displays the writing quality and photographic talent that we expect from National Geographic.
Leather/ette-bound with gold latticework covering the large 12x10 5lb. volume.
Perfect condition.

This is a vintage copy of Handy Andy: A Tale of Irish Life, written in 1841 by the Irish novelist, composer, painter and songwriter Samuel Lover (1797-1868). It centers around Andy Rooney, a fellow who has the knack of doing everything the wrong way. It is a hilarious farce regarded as a way to "purge melancholy".
This is one of the Everyman's Library copies, published by Dent in 1954. You can still find the odd copy in the UK but they're rare in North America.
This copy was purchased at Eaton's, the (now-gone) Canadian department store. The owner attached the receipt to the inside front cover with a bookplate.
The dust jacket is not in the best of shape.
The cover has some fingerprints on it and needs cleaning.
The inside is perfect.

Peter Quennell's A History of English Literature is a reference book, but it is known as one that people actually read straight through.
From a review: "This book is a delight. Quennell is besotted by the English language and he presents to the reader a procession of gifted wordsmiths both famous and obscure, from the dawn of British literature to the present. You will be introduced to a full array of English eccentrics, including the poet who permitted his farm animals to roam free in his vicarage, and chose this as an opportunity to teach his pig to drink from a tankard. We travel to to the Mermaid Tavern, where Ben Johnson and Donne and Will Shakespeare met for ale. Quennell's knowledge is prodigious and his judgements are both fresh and reasoned; the text is well-illustrated."
This is a first edition, unread, unopened.
512 pages, heavily illustrated.
Outside, it is almost perfect--there is a little white spot at the top of the back cover. No dust jacket.
Inside, it is in pristine condition.

'This is the first book written on the development of gardening in Ireland from the earliest times to the present day. It is an important contribution, since many of the people who gardened in Ireland had an influence extending far beyond its shores. Their ideas and their activities were significant, not only on garden design but also in breeding of important garden plants, in botanical exploration, and in their contribution to the literature of gardening. Irish examples of the work of leading British landscape architects are brought to notice, often for the first time.'
It is a soft-cover book, 232 pages, with card covers and French flaps.
Written by Keith Lamb and Patrick Bowe and Published by Ireland's National Botanic Gardens.
There are loads of illustrations, in black and white, plus 19 colour plates.
(The white mark in photo #2 is sunlight coming in through the curtain.)
The only flaw in this book is that the original owner wrote her name and address on the frontispiece—you can cover it with a… Read More

Hungry Hill is a novel by prolific British author Daphne du Maurier, published in 1943. It was her seventh novel; 33 editions have since been printed, the last in 2008. In 1943, it was published in the UK by Gollancz and by Doubleday in the US. Using the Doubleday plates, Toronto's Ryerson Press published it for Canada. So this is a copy of the first Canadian edition, and the fourth printing overall.
This family saga is based on the history of the Irish ancestors of du Maurier's friend Christopher Puxley, whose family owned mines in County Cork. The story spans from 1820 to 1920 and follows five male characters from a family of Anglo-Irish landowners, the Brodricks, who live in a castle called Clonmere. It is divided into five sub-books and an epilogue. Each section covers part of the life of an heir. Obviously, it was a huge best-seller, and has remained popular (it was made into a film in 1947).
This book is in excellent condition. It has clean bright green cloth covers with minor wear to the edges… Read More

This is a rare copy of Charles Lever's Martins of Cro'Martin, by the Anglo-Irish author Charles Lever (1806-1872). Lever, who wrote about 30 novels, is now known as one of the most under-rated writers of the 19th century, and well on a par with Thackeray, Trollope and Dickens (Trollope was one of his biggest fans).The story, which begins in 1829, is about an Anglo-Irish family dealing with the profound social and political upheaval taking place in Ireland at the time. Martins of Cro'Martin was originally published in 1856 and usually appeared in 2 volumes, with illustrations/etchings by Phiz (the Dickens illustrator Hablot Brown).
This copy has no illustrations and is 680 pages. It was published in New York by Hurst & Company, as part of its Eminent Authors series, which was released in 1902.
It is burgundy boards with an impressed design on the front cover and bright gold lettering on the spine. There are a couple of spots on the cover, which can be cleaned off. The spine is tight throughout the… Read More

In the early 1950s, Michael Joseph published a series of best-selling books under the imprint Mermaid Books. They were all 5" x 7 1/2", on thicker paper. Colored, illustrated and laminated covers. Not paperbacks, not hard covers--flexible harder covers is the best way to describe them. This is one of those Mermaid Books.
It is Mister Johnson, the sixth of 23 novels, written in 1939, by the Irish novelist Joyce Cary (1888-1957). Cary, who called it his favorite book, wrote the story as humor, but it is actually more of a tragedy, as it is about a young Nigerian who falls afoul of British colonial authorities. It is regularly used in schools and produced for the stage. In 1990, Bruce Beresford became the first director to shoot an American film on location in Nigeria; his film of the same name starred Maynard Eziashi, Pierce Brosnan and Edward Woodward.

This book is 206 pages with no interior adornment.
The front cover has a small crease; there is a scratch on the back cover.
Inside, the paper has… Read More

This book is undated, but it was published to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, so it would be 2016.

James Joyce was an Irish novelist, short story writer, poet, teacher, and literary critic who is regarded as one of the most important writers of the 20th century. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) is one of his great works. It is a coming-of-age novel, heavily autobiographical, depicting the childhood and adolescence of the artist.

This copy has not been read and the spine is uncracked.Its only flaws are some dappling on the page edges--not on the pages.And, as you can see, there's a little spot on the dust jacket, on the spine, where the paper has been scratched. Otherwise, it's perfect.

In 1933, the great Irish writer George Bernard Shaw made his one and only visit to the United States, and addressed a gathering of the Academy of Political Science in New York. He made the speech entitled "The Political Madhouse in America and Nearer Home". In it, rather than use flattery to persuade, he used ridicule, shock and irritation to create change. As many in the room were insulted, the speech caused a stir and his publisher immediately printed and marketed the transcript. This is a first edition of that transcript.
It is just 63 pages. Bright blue cover with taped spine (it was published with a taped spine). The name of the artist who designed all of Shaw's books, John Farleigh, is printed on the cover. It's printed on thick, stiff paper.
The spine of the book has been split (see photo). But, aside from that, and a little fading to the right side of the cover, this book is in mint condition.

Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, poet, cleric and Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. His most famous works are Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal and A Tale of a Tub. He is still regarded as the foremost prose satirist in the English language and his deadpan style caused the term 'Swiftian' to be embedded in the English language.
A Tale of a Tub, 'Written for the Universal Improvement of Mankind', was Swift's first major work and his most difficult and masterly satire. It is a prose parody divided into sections, each delving into the morals and ethics of the English. Composed between 1694 and1697, it was published in 1704. It was attacked as being as a satire on religion. Leading the attack was the theologian William Wotton.
The title page of this copy states that it was published by Herbert B Turner & Co, Boston, 1902.
Confusingly, this copy contains 'explanatory notes' by none other than William Wotton.
It is 4 ¼" x 6 ¼", burgundy boards with a leaf… Read More

This is a lovely leather-bound copy of the great humorous novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, regarded by many as one of the greatest novels ever written. It was published between 1759 and 1757 by the Anglo-Irish author Laurence Sterne (1713-1768), and is ostensibly Tristram's autobiography but takes the reader on a tour of many things. It is full of bawdy humor, graphic devices, satire, politics and fascinating people.
This copy was published in 1981 by the Franklin Library (Franklin Mint). It is dark red leather with an elaborate gold design on the cover and spine. It has a bound-in silk bookmark.
Inside, the book is perfect. Lovely thick paper, creamy white. Chapter headings are in red. 546 pages, 8 illustrations.
Although it has a bookplate on the inside front cover (which you can remove), it has not been read, or even opened. All pages are like new, crisp and clear and without marks of any kind. The spine is un-cracked, the covers have no shelfwear at all—it is in pristine… Read More

This is a first edition of Wellington After Waterloo, by the Irish writer Neville Thompson. In this book, Thompson traces Wellington's life after 1815, using then new archival and documentary records. The work examines the development of Wellington's character and outlook, and assesses the significance of his involvement in politics over three decades. It shows the Duke was a crucial figure in the development of the compromise between reform and the preservation of traditional institutions and practices.
The dust jacket is unclipped. 303 pages, including photos.
This copy has not been read and is in mint condition.
Note: If you are outside of North America, the quoted shipping price is for surface mail without tracking. For other options, please contact me.