Stories of Red Hanrahan and the Secret Rose by Yeats, W.B - 1927

London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd, 1927. First Edition Thus. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. Norah McGuinness. First Edition Thus, combining two titles published separately, previously and with new, fresh, beautiful illustrations, and not the First American Edition Thus published in the same year in New York. An attractive copy in Imperial octavo format, bound in a deep, dark blue, and with remarkably bright gilt design to front cover (of a Knight bearing a sword and accompanied by pairs of fish and pelicans) and with an image, "Crucifixion of the Outcast," featuring a figure bearing arms raised high, legs crossed, reproducing one of the two gorgeous full-color plates drawn by Norah McGuinness, the other being of the protagonist "Red Hanrahan," at frontis. Black-and-white pen and ink illustrations throughout. Very light dust soiling along top edge, light scuffing to spine head and foot, half-toning to first and endpapers from dust-jacket, else quite bright of interior. Lovely dust jacket, not price-clipped, present, and covered with a stiff plastic Adaptaroll sleeve, showing a bit of sunning to spine, a bit of wear to both joints, some creasing along rear panel at top, else quite attractive still. 182 pp. Note at frontis registers that the stories were written first in 1897 then rewritten with "Lady Gregory's help" again in 1907(see below). A Wikipedia article about the illustrator says that "Norah Allison McGuinness (7 November 1901 – 22 November 1980) was an Irish painter and illustrator," born in County Londonderry, who trained as a painter and who painted "vivid, highly coloured landscapes; her work shows the cubist influence of Lhote and she was associated with the modern movement in Ireland. She helped found the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in 1943 and became its president in 1944 after the death of Mainie Jellett." Another Wikipedia entry, about "Owen Red Hanrahan" notes the appearance in several works of fiction by William Butler Yeats and who based the character loosely on "the real-life bard Owen Roe O'Sullivan (Eoghan Ruadh Ó Súilleabháin)," but changing his name from O'Sullivan to Hanrahan the Red for this work and adding elements of folklore and ancient poetry. "Stories of Red Hanrahan" appeared first in 1897 and were then reworked substantially in cahoots with "Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory" (née Persse; 15 March 1852 – 22 May 1932), an Irish dramatist, folklorist and theatre manager who, with Yeats and Edward Martyn, co-founded the Irish Literary Theatre and the Abbey Theatre and changed political loyalties from Royalist British rule to a sort of Irish nationalist fervor. Else and withal, a lovely copy of a scarce item. Member, I.O.B.A., C.B.A., and adherent to the highest ethical standards. Additional postage may be required for oversize or especially heavy volumes, and for sets.