WHYTE'S THE ECLECTIC COLLECTOR Saturday 6 May 2017 at 10am

THE ECLECTIC COLLECTOR · 6 MAY 2017 AT 10AM

742

Yeats, W. B. The Tower. First Edition.

London, MacMillan & Co., 1928. first edition, 8vo, 110 pages, illustrated cloth with gilt lettering and

ornaments after a design by Sturge Moore.

The Tower was a book of poems by W. B. Yeats, published in 1928. The Tower was Yeats’s first major

collection as Nobel Laureate after receiving the Nobel Prize in 1923. It is considered to be one of the

poet’s most influential volumes and was well received by the public. The title, which the book shares

with the second poem, refers to Ballylee Castle, a Norman tower which Yeats purchased and restored in

1917. Yeats Gaelicized the name to Thoor Ballyllee, and it has retained the title to this day. Yeats often

summered at Thoor Ballylee with his family until 1928. The book includes several of Yeats’most famous

poems, including “Sailing to Byzantium,”“Leda and the Swan,” and “Among School Children.” All of the

poems included in The Tower had previously appeared elsewhere in print collections and periodicals.

Many of the poems featured in Seven Poems and a Fragment, The Cat and the Moon and Certain Poems,

and October Blast released by Cuala Press. Other poems had been collected in A Vision.,

Yeats commissioned Thomas Sturge Moore to create the cover for the volume in 1927. The gold wood-

cut style image depicts Thoor Ballylee and its reflection in waters below the tower all on a light green

background. The poet praised Moore’s artwork, noting that the cover was both a true representation of

Thoor Ballylee and a successful symbolic design for the collection. Moore’s work on The Tower and other

collections solidified Yeats’s modern image in both American and English print editions. Many of the

poems in The Tower demonstrate Yeats’s disillusionment with the limitations of the physical world and

his withdrawal from ordinary life. The poet seeks to transcend the conflicts between the dichotomies of

mind/body and thought/action by allowing poetry to exist in the world of vision rather than the world of

reality.

Estimate €250-€350 (approx £212-£297)

The Time Traveller Collection