The Abbey Theatre Series of Plays : A Bibliography

The Dolmen Press, Dublin, first edition, 1969. Cloth, 8vo, 26 cm,. 53 pp, ills. From the preface – "This Bibliography deals with the original Abbey Theatre Series of fifteen volumes and the later Abbey Theatre Series of nine unnumbered volumes. The front cover of the original series has a line block of Queen Maeve hunting on the Irish hills with an Irish Wolfhound.. The later series has a line block of a boy holding a theatrical mask in each hand on the front cover.. The Bibliographical complexity of the books under review has proved extremely tortuous. Quite apart from the difficulty in obtaining access to sufficient copies, I have had to contend with the problem of two, and in one case, three separate publishers using the same sheets for a particular volume. .. Matters are further complicated since some of the other volumes in the original series, as well as some of the volumes in the later series, were issued by Maunsel in non-series wrappers. One play, Volume XIV. of the original series, Birthright by T. C. Murray, was later issued in the binding of the second series. The common link between the two series is that all the plays, with the exception of the last play in the later series, Sable and Gold, were originally performed by the Abbey Theatre Company or by its predecessor, the Irish Literary Theatre. A trifle rubbed, Good.