A Boy In Eirinn Illustrated By Jack B Yeats

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Jack B. Yeats was the son of portrait painter John Butler Yeats and younger brother of the poet William Butler Yeats. He spent his childhood in Sligo, which remained a permanent source of inspiration for his painting. He studied art in London and soon earned a high reputation for pen and ink drawings in magazines. In 1910, after a period in Devon, he settled in Dublin where he devoted himself to painting in oils. Yeats was closely connected to the literary personalities of his day; John Masefield and J. M. Synge became his close friends. In the 1930s and '40s he published novels and plays which won the admiration of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. His paintings have been exhibited in many major galleries, and continue to be exhibited thirty years after his death.

First published in 1998, this volume explores how the genre of school stories had become firmly established by the turn of the twentieth century, having been built on the foundations laid by writers such as Thomas Hughes and F.W. Farrar. Stories for girls were also taking on a more exciting complexion, inspired by the ‘Katy’ books of Susan Coolidge. The first five decades of the twentieth century saw further developments in children’s fiction. In this comprehensive volume, John and Jonathan Cooper examine each decade in turn, with alphabetically arranged entries on popular children’s writers that published works in English during that period. 206 different authors are covered, many from the United States and Canada. Each entry provides information on the author’s pseudonyms, date of birth, nationality, titles of works, place and date of publication and the publisher’s name. The artist responsible for a book’s illustrations is also identified where possible. With over 200 illustrations of cover designs and dustwrappers, many of which are now rare and have never before been published, this book will delight collectors, dealers, scholars, librarians, parents and all those who simply enjoy reading children’s fiction.

This co-edited collection breaks new ground by bringing together several leading scholars to explore the substantial body of work produced by Padraic Colum (1881–1972) who was a poet, a novelist, a dramatist, a biographer, a writer of fiction for adults and children, and a collector of folklore. The awards, honours, and distinction conferred upon him and his work throughout his life and career, as well as retrospectively, give an indication of the significant and wide-ranging appeal and influence of Colum not only as an Irish writer and storyteller but also as a literary figure entrusted with the myths and legends of other cultures and nations. Despite such achievements, he has received comparatively little critical or scholarly attention to date. This volume showcases the richness of Colum’s work by subjecting it to a rigorous literary and theoretical examination and is the first combined and detailed analysis of both his children’s and adult texts.

This book provides scholars, both national and international, with a basis for advanced research in children’s literature in collections. Examining books for children published across five centuries, gathered from the collections in Dublin, this unique volume advances causes in collecting, librarianship, education, and children’s literature studies more generally. It facilitates processes of discovery and recovery that present various pathways for researchers with diverse interests in children’s books to engage with collections. From book histories, through bookselling, information on collectors, and histories of education to close text analyses, it is evident that there are various approaches to researching collections. In this volume, three dominant approaches emerge: history and canonicity, author and text, ideals and institutions. Through its focus on varied materials, from fiction to textbooks, this volume illuminates how cities can articulate a vision of children's literature through particular collections and institutional practices.