The Dublin Book of Irish Verse
1728-1909
edited by John Cooke
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Hodges, Figgis & Co., 1924, Dublin.
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Size: 18,9 x 12,8 cm.
Pp. VII, 803.
Provenance: no marks, but from the library of Irish poet William Monk Gibbon.
Binding: Hardcover, in very good dust jacket (small tears, little worn). Top edge gilt.
Condition: Despite some minor imperfections, a fine copy.
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For condition and details, see scans.
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William Monk Gibbon (1896 – 29 November 1987) was an acclaimed Irish poet and writer who authored over 20 volumes of poetry, travel, autobiography, and criticism. He was known as “The Grand Old Man of Irish Letters” and his works are housed at Queen’s University Belfast. Gibbon was also a prolific novelist but was characterized as “self-regarding and prickly.” He was the son of a Church of Ireland clergyman and served as an officer in France during World War I before becoming an avid pacifist. He was involved in the Easter Rising of 1916 and wrote a detailed account of the shooting of pacifist Francis Sheehy-Skeffington in his book, Inglorious Soldier. Gibbon knew and had intimate accounts of many famous Irish writers, including William Butler Yeats, whom he had a tense relationship with. He married Mabel Dingwall, and their home, Tara Hall in Sandymount, County Dublin, was a literary center frequented by writers such as Padraic Colum and Austin Clarke. Gibbon was an avid cyclist and often wrote in bed, collecting driftwood on his walks to the seafront. His notable works include The Seals, Mount Ida, and The Masterpiece and the Man: Yeats as I Knew Him.
