Department of English

The Humanities Division and Special Collections at the Morris Library of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale have worked together to develop our holdings in Irish literature. While Special Collections has more manuscripts and scarce editions than the general collection, the stacks have a broad selection of secondary material, especially on the early twentieth century. Our holdings include nearly 1,000 secondary works on James Joyce alone, as well as nearly 500 separate books by him. Forty editions by Mary Lavin are on the shelves and over 400 by W. B. Yeats. Other Irish authors are well represented by the library's general collection, including Samuel Beckett, George Russell, Lady Augusta Gregory, Lennox Robinson, Lord Dunsany, Liam O'Flaherty, George Moore, Brian O'Nolan, William Trevor, Padraic Colum, Sean O'Casey, and Austin Clarke.

In addition to these specialized areas, the basic holdings in Irish literature are representative of a fine research library. There are over 100 books of travel and descriptive writing about Ireland as well as over 2,000 works on Irish history, society, and politics. Over 200 books discussing the economic and historical conditions of Northern Ireland alone are included in the collection. Morris Library also subscribes to a number of Irish and Irish-American journals including Irish Historical Studies and Eire-Ireland as well as less well known publications such as The Honest Ulsterman.

Professor John V. Kelleher, emeritus holder of the endowed Chair in Irish Studies at Harvard University, donated the heart of his working library in Irish history, literature, and the social sciences to Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. The volumes in this collection, many of them heavily annotated by Professor Kelleher, constitute a uniquely valuable resource for students and scholars.

Professor Kelleher held Harvard's Chair in Irish Studies until his retirement in 1986. He was a renowned teacher for forty years at Harvard, and his lectures, seminars, and conference papers encouraged hundreds of students toward the study of Irish history and literature. As a publishing scholar, Professor Kelleher's great achievement has been his extraordinary essays, which have always a gem-like precision of thought and an exceptional conciseness of expression, leavened with wit, humor, and colloquial directness. Over the years, these essays have been the catalyst and inspiration for the work in Irish Studies of numerous younger scholars. Moreover, the most remarkable feature of his scholarship has been Professor Kelleher's magisterial command of the entire range of Irish cultural studies in both Irish and English. He has written seminal essays on the earliest corpus of annals, genealogies, and heroic tales, on ideas of "Celticism" in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, on the Irish Renaissance accomplishments of William Butler Yeats and James Joyce, and on the stories of his friends O'Connor and O'Faolain. Moreover, he wrote early, crucial essays that defined terms and set boundaries for the study of the immigrant and ethnic cultures of Irish America. A collection of Professor Kelleher's original poems and translations from the Irish, Too Small for Stovewood, Too Big for Kindling, was published by Ireland's Dolmen Press.

The Kelleher Library will allow new generations of scholars to follow to the roots, and then to build upon, the work of this founding father of Irish Studies in America.

In the 1960s, Morris Library started collecting books and manuscripts from the period of the Irish Renaissance through roughly 1950. During this time the major collections were purchased. The strengths of the library holdings are in James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, and the Abbey Theatre, although many other Irish artists are well represented. As a rule, strong manuscript holdings of authors (for example, Mary Lavin, Brian O'Nolan, Francis Stuart, Katharine Tynan Hinkson) are backed by nearly definitive collections of their printed works. Since the 1960s, Special Collections has consistently added to its holdings, while the general library has kept pace with both Irish history and literature.

Special Collections holds a definitive collection of primary Joyce works, attempting to collect every printing of every edition of his works, including the piracies, most minor editions, most translations, and the Garland facsimiles. The Arion press edition of Ulysses, which has come to epitomize the textual problems among Joycean scholars and editors, is present, as well as eight copies of the first printing of Ulysses in its various states. The library has a high percentage of all secondary Joyce material as well, and it also houses one of only two bronze casts of the head and shoulders of Joyce from the Milton Hebald statue on his grave in Zurich. We also have original portraits of Joyce, including one by his biographer Frank Budgen.

Special Collections has very strong holdings of first editions of writers connected with the Abbey Theatre and the Irish Literary Renaissance, including Lady Augusta Gregory, John M. Synge, Douglas Hyde, Padraic Colum, Padraic Pearse, Lord Dunsany, Sean O'Casey, and Lennox Robinson, among others. These collections consist mainly of works printed during the authors' lifetimes. The library also contains virtually every edition of the works of Mary Lavin, Francis Stuart, Brendan Behan, and Flann O'Brien.

In addition to a solid representation of the contemporary Irish writers, Special Collections has the Field Day Anthology and all of the Field Day pamphlets. Also present are a number of Irish reference books, an Irish dictionary, and some Gaelic books. A large number of Irish journals have been collected over the years as well. Notable here is a full run of The Bell (1940-1954), founded by Sean O'Faolain and the longest lived, most significant literary magazine of modern Ireland.

Materials held in Special Collections at the Morris Library may be viewed during the regular hours for the Special Collections reading room. The links below provide information relevant to the Irish and Irish Immigration materials collected at SIU, but additional details about specific collections can be found by contacting the library directly or referencing the Special Collections portal.

The Abbey Theatre 1904-1970

The Abbey Theatre collection contains a representative sample of programs from 1904 to 1970. In addition, there are programs from the Apollo Theatre, the Dublin Gate Theatre, the Abbey Experimental Theatre, the Royalty and Royal Court Theatre, as well as from dramatic performances by the Abbey Theatre and Irish theatre miscellany.

The first Abbey program, dated December 27, 1904, is in the collection as well as at least one program from each year through 1908. Programs from 1910, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, and 1916 are also here. The years 1918 through 1940 are present in the collection, including the twenty-first anniversary program from 1925. Multiple programs from the 1920s have been collected. For example, there are twenty-three programs from 1926, thirty from 1927, and twenty-three from 1928.

In 1938, the Abbey held a Dramatic Festival of nineteen or twenty plays and lectures. The program gives short biographies as well as photographs of theatrical personages, including W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, John M. Synge, Lennox Robinson, Denis Johnston, George Bernard Shaw, Douglas Hyde, T. C. Murray, George Shiels, Sean O'Casey, Hugh Hunt, Walter Starkie, and Frank O'Connor. The list of plays includes Kathleen ni Houlihan, The Playboy of the Western World, Riders to the Sea, Purgatory, Maurice Harte, Church Street, and The Plough and the Stars.

After 1940, the collection becomes less representative but nonetheless remains interesting. The Abbey had responded to the resurgence of the Gaelic language by offering numerous performances of plays in Gaelic throughout the year. The brochures from 1946 and 1952 are printed in Gaelic for these performances. Various photographs document the burnt remnants of the theatre after its demise in 1959 as well as interior shots of the new theatre. There are also several other photographs of plays, including shots of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night and Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy.

The new Abbey Theatre building, built over fifteen years, opened in July, 1966, is documented through a set of sixteen architectural briefs and the souvenir brochure and program. In addition, newspaper clippings from The Irish Times and The St. Louis Post-Dispatch announce the grand opening of the new theatre. The Nationalist and Leinster Times also announces the theatre's opening while scathingly denouncing its director Ernest Blythe.

There is an assortment of other material relating to the Abbey in the collection, including ticket stubs, checks, and receipts (primarily from 1904-1910), and a limited correspondence. Finally, four issues of the Dublin Gate Theatre magazine Motley from the years 1932 and 1933 complete the collection.

Selected Papers of Alan M. Cohn

Articles and notes from Southern Illinois University librarian Alan Cohn's work on maintaining the bibliography for the James Joyce Quarterly as well as Cohn's correspondence with Joyce scholars comprise most of this large holding. Running from 1955 to 1989, the correspondents include Joyce collector Harley K. Croessmann and many Joyce scholars and enthusiasts, among them Joseph Campbell, Richard Ellmann, Clive Hart, Richard Kain, Fritz Senn, Ruth Von Phul, Henry Moore, and Sylvia Beach. Also in these files are dust jackets of books, brochures, and newspaper clippings about Joyce that were collected by Cohn.

This collection reveals much about Alan Cohn and his fellow Joyceans that is useful and interesting, because it provides a chronological history of the "Joyce industry" for the thirty-five years beginning in 1955. As the major Joyce bibliographer, Cohn was the respected watchdog of the developing interest in Joyce studies. Of special value is the large correspondence with Richard Ellmann, for whom Cohn was a constant resource as Ellmann composed his definitive biography of Joyce. There are many such scholarly exchanges in these papers, since so many Joyceans relied on Cohn's bibliographic expertise. The evolution of much seminal criticism of Joyce is documented in the Alan M. Cohn Papers.

Elizabeth Coxhead Collection

The Elizabeth Coxhead manuscript collection consists of the typed, final drafts of her biography of Lady Gregory, Lady Gregory: A Literary Portrait. Included in separate folders are the preliminaries, acknowledgements, preface, and the fifteen chapters with minor editing marks, small additions and deletions as well as a list of Lady Gregory's principal publications, a bibliography, and an index. Of special interest are Coxhead's explanations for agreeing or disagreeing with the suggested alterations to her book. Two published reviews complete the collection.

The Cuala Press

Special Collections contains extensive holdings of the early Cuala Press. Included in the collection are all eleven of the first imprints under the Dun Emer label as well as the subsequent sixty-six imprints under the Cuala Press label, including the three sets of broadsides with numerous hand-colored Jack Yeats prints. A few of the imprints from the 1970s are also in the collection. Also collected are many of the Cuala Press Christmas and greeting cards.

Envoy 1949-1951

During its twenty-month existence, Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art, published the work of a broad range of writers, Irish and others. The first to publish J. P. Donleavy, Brendan Behan's first short stories and his first poem, and an extract from Samuel Beckett's "Watt," Envoy was begun by John Ryan, a Dublin artist, who was editor and prime mover. Among the distinguished associate editors were Valentin Iremonger, Irish diplomat and poet who served as poetry editor, J. K. Hillman, Michael Huron, and Owen Quinn.

In December of 1949, Envoy was inaugurated in response to Irish trade and censorship restrictions, which had forced many writers to seek publication outside their homeland. Though the Envoy Publishing Company's goal of publishing books died with the magazine in July, 1951, the short-lived enterprise succeeded, with the publication of Valentin Iremonger's prize-winning book of poetry Reservations, and with its lively magazine, in breaching some of the barriers of Irish publication, as well as providing outstanding prose, poetry, criticism, and reviews of the contemporary Irish art scene. Among Envoy contributors were Samuel Beckett, Brendan Behan, Anton Chekhov (in translation), Padraic Colum, Anthony Cronin, Aidan Higgins, Pearse Hutchinson, Maria Jolas (in translation), Patrick Kavanagh (who wrote the monthly "Diary"), Mary Lavin, Ethel Mannin, Lionel Miskin, Brian O'Nolan, Edward Sheehy, Francis Stuart, Patrick Swift, Arland Ussher, Thomas Woods, and many others.

The collection consists mainly of published and unpublished manuscripts and letters of a literary nature to Envoy. Other correspondence includes incoming business letters and out-going letters, which are organized into separate files in alphabetical order. Included in this collection is a scrapbook of clippings related to the journal. Published manuscript material has been organized by issue in chronological order from its founding issue in December, 1949, to its demise in July, 1951. Twenty-one issues of Envoy (two copies of the February 1951 issue) and a copy of the June 1942 issue of The Bell complete the collection.

Lady Augusta Gregory

The library holdings for Lady Augusta Gregory include twenty letters from Lady Gregory to assorted people, some miscellaneous material, and one letter from Elizabeth Coxhead, her biographer, to Ralph Bushee, discussing manuscript sources for her study of Lady Gregory. The letters date from 1912 to 1931; however, some are undated. Nearly all of the correspondence concerns literary matters such as the production of certain plays and her own work.

Katharine Tynan Hinkson

1. Katharine Tynan Hinkson Collection

   The Katharine Tynan Hinkson collection is comprised principally of three series: correspondence, manuscripts, and a miscellaneous assortment of newspaper clippings, booklets, souvenirs, and personal effects.

   The correspondence, covering the years 1885-1929, contains over 200 letters to Tynan. Correspondents include members of the Yeats family, Lady Wilde, Wilfrid Blunt, Douglas Hyde, Padriac Colum, Jane Barlow, T.M. Healy, Edith OE. Somerville, Alice Milligan, Lennox Robinson, Sir Horace Plunkett, Lady Gregory, and George Russell, among others. Also present are several letters to her daughter Pamela Hinkson.

   The manuscripts collected include twenty-five handwritten, typed, or printed articles on literary topics and personalities such as "The Anglo-Irish," "The Descendants of an Irish Patriot," and "English Women Poets." Also available are the manuscripts of her reminiscences: "Twenty-Five Years," "The Middle Years," and "Years of the Shadow." There are clippings of various articles written about her by John O'Leary in 1892, A. P. Graves in 1884, and W.B. Yeats, as well as clippings of articles she wrote about Lionel Johnson, Susan Mitchell, and Francis Thompson.

   In the miscellaneous materials, there are programs for the Dublin University Tercentenary service in 1891, stock certificates, election petitions, booklets written by other writers, menus, invitations, and souvenirs. Included here are her Parnell souvenirs, among them the telegram she received announcing Parnell's death. This large collection is extensive and offers the researcher insight into Tynan's creative process as well as her life. There are also copies of most of her printed books.

2. Additional Holdings -- Katharine Tynan

   The additional holdings of Katharine Tynan materials are comprised of letters from Tynan, her manuscripts, and writings by her daughter Pamela Hinkson. There are twelve letters spanning the years 1895-1929 from Tynan to various people primarily discussing literary matters and business. One letter of June, 1886, from Christina Rossetti to Tynan, comments on several books of Tynan's poetry. In addition to this correspondence are two manuscripts: the poem "The Christmas Bird," dated 1913, and the ninety-one-page holograph signed manuscript The Child's Prayer Book.
   

   Three of the files contain Pamela Hinkson's correspondence and a manuscript, not dated, entitled "Katharine Tynan in the Irish Literary Movement." The correspondence is comprised of over fifty pieces. One set, May 22, 1966-July, 1968, concerns selling books, manuscripts, and documents belonging to her late mother.

The Holy Door 1965-1966

Holy Door, a little magazine "devoted to the new mind and the new eye," succeeded James Liddy's Arena in 1965, apparently publishing some manuscripts originally intended for the latter magazine. Holy Door, edited by Brian Lynch in Dublin, appeared only three times, but published the work of many important poets and writers in those three issues, including W. H. Auden, George Barker, Anthony Cronin, Edward Dahlberg, Paul Durcan, Michael Hartnett, Patrick Kavanagh, Thomas Kinsella, John Montague, Pablo Neruda (translated by Robert Bly), Charles Hubert Sisson, and Andrei Voznesensky (in translation).

This collection contains about 155 manuscripts, mostly typed, covering all but eight of the poems and essays published in the Holy Door, approximately thirty unpublished manuscripts, and 140 items of correspondence, mostly concerning publication of, and payment for, submissions to the magazine. Much of the correspondence is from the contributors to Brian Lynch, although there are some letters addressed to James Liddy as well. There are also copies of the three issues of the magazine (one a xerox copy), and a photograph of Brian Lynch and three others.

James Joyce

1. The Guiseppe Bertelli Collection of Joyce Correspondence 1939

   The correspondence in the Bertelli Collection, which includes three postcards, two letters, and a telegram from Joyce, as well as one letter from Richard Ofner to Joyce, is unpublished.

   Nearly all the correspondence in the collection concerns Joyce's efforts to help Ofner, a Czechoslovakian Jew, get an American visa for his son Richard. Joyce had helped others flee Europe, and had received some financial assistance through an acquaintance of the boy's mother, Charlotte Sauermann, a soprano Joyce knew in Zurich, so he was eager to help Ofner. Joyce contacted Dr. Guiseppe Bertelli, a former student who had assisted other European refugees, asking him to try to do what he could to help obtain the visa for Ofner. The correspondence does not indicate whether or not these efforts were successful.

2. The Croessmann Collection of James Joyce 1901-1958

   The Croessmann Collection of James Joyce, assembled by Dr. Harley K. Croessmann, contains correspondence by and about Joyce and many manuscripts, notes, galley proofs, photographs, pictorial representations, sculpture, and ephemera, by Joyce and his friends, biographers, and critics. The collection is divided into three parts: the Herbert Gorman Papers, the Georg Goyert Papers, and other Croessmann acquisitions.

   The Herbert Gorman Papers contain materials relating to Gorman's 1924 biography of Joyce, including 330 original and transcribed letters, notes, drafts, typescripts, galley proofs, and manuscripts by Joyce and others. The correspondence consists of letters Gorman received from Joyce and others and transcriptions of Joyce letters for the biography. There are thirty letters and cards, dated 1925-1938, from Joyce to Gorman (and his wife), discussing corrections for the biography and for Joyce's manuscript "Sullivan," as well as efforts to help tenor John Sullivan. In addition, the correspondence contains letters from some of Joyce's friends and acquaintances, who helped Gorman by providing their recollections of Joyce and details about Dublin. These correspondents include: Alf Bergan, Harriet Weaver, T. S. Eliot, Arthur Symons, Oliver St. John Gogarty, Stanislaus Joyce, Eugene Jolas, James S. Starkey (Seumas O'Sullivan), and Padraic Colum.

   Many of the 150 transcriptions of Joyce letters were provided by Joyce's brother Stanislaus Joyce, and include letters from Joyce to his mother, his wife, and to Stanislaus. Though the originals of the Joyce-Stanislaus Joyce correspondence are housed in the Cornell Joyce Collection, some of the originals did not survive, making these transcriptions the only record of the contents of the missing letters. There are other transcribed letters, including some from John Quinn to Ezra Pound and Margaret Anderson about the Little Review--Ulysses obscenity proceedings.

   The collection contains valuable notes that Herbert Gorman took while reading Joyce's Paris Notebook (1902-1904), the original of which has not been found. The notes record Joyce's notes for Stephen Hero and Dubliners, as well as the author's aesthetic theories, among other material. Joyce's schema for Ulysses is here as are drafts of "From a Banned Writer to a Banned Singer" (originally titled "Sullivan") and "Epilogue to Ibsen's 'Ghosts.'" The typescripts and galley proofs of Gorman's biography have autograph corrections by Gorman and suggested corrections by Joyce (in Paul Leon's hand).

   The Georg Goyert Papers, covering the years 1927-1939, consist almost entirely of letters from Joyce to Goyert about personal matters and Goyert's translations of Dubliners and Ulysses into German. Some of the letters are written in German. The collection also includes Joyce's gloss for the "Oxen of the Sun" chapter of Ulysses, with the author's comments on difficult parts to help Goyert with his translation of the episode, and a copy of the "International Protest" against the pirating of Ulysses.
   

   The final section of the Croessmann Collection of James Joyce is the most diverse, containing correspondence, manuscripts, galley proofs, musical holographs, photographs, pictorial representations, sculpture, and ephemera. The correspondence (1904-1940) consists of thirty-eight letters from Joyce to George Roberts, Elkin Mathews, Jonathan Cape, Michael Lennon, and Lucia Joyce, among others, concerning personal matters, and publishing and royalties for Chamber Music, with references to A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Finnegans Wake as well. Some of the letters are written in Italian, a few in French, but the majority of them are in English.

   Manuscripts in this section of the Croessmann Collection include pages from a late draft of the "Circe" episode, and drafts of essays by Michael J. Lennon, John Cowper Powys (on Finnegans Wake), and Lucie Noel (wife of Paul Leon). There are also galleys and manuscripts of Stuart Gilbert's Letters of James Joyce (first volume published in 1957), and Stanislaus Joyce's My Brother's Keeper (published in 1958). In addition, the collection includes final drafts, in the composer's hand, of the music for thirty-two songs from Chamber Music, dated 1909, by Geoffrey Molyneux Palmer.

   The collection also contains approximately forty photographs, ranging from pictures of Joyce as a baby to photos of the graves of Joyce and his wife Nora. There are family photographs as well as pictures of Joyce with Sylvia Beach, James Stephens, John Sullivan, and others, in addition to photos of buildings and monuments, including the Martello tower at Sandycove and Barney Kiernan's public house. Printed matter includes a pamphlet containing Joyce's essay "The Day of the Rabblement" and a first edition broadside of "The Holy Office." In addition, the Croessmann Collection contains oil paintings by Frank Budgen, photographs by Man Ray, a bust of Joyce, various other drawings and paintings, and ephemera, including theater playbills, legal briefs, radio scripts, journal tearsheets, and newscuttings. Finally, the Croessmann correspondence documents the compilation of materials for the collection and includes the following correspondents, among others: Sylvia Beach, Padraic Colum, Stuart Gilbert, Elkin Mathews, Samuel Roth, Harriet Weaver, and H. L. Mencken.

   Steven Lund's James Joyce: Letters, Manuscripts, and Photographs at Southern Illinois University (Whitson Publishing, 1983) provides extensive documentation of the Croessmann, Feinberg, Bertelli, Francini-Bruni, and Richard Wallace collections of James Joyce.

3. The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of James Joyce 1904-1937

   The Charles E. Feinberg Collection contains about 160 letters and cards, the majority of which are Joyce's correspondence with London literary agent James B. Pinker, who began working with Joyce in 1915. The correspondence with Pinker documents Joyce's efforts to publish a number of his works, including A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and some of his poems. Joyce also writes to Pinker about getting Chamber Music, Exiles, and Dubliners published in the United States. Several series of letters included in the collection concern the publication of Ulysses in the United States. The first, a series of four letters which focuses on proposals to publish the novel in America, includes letters to Joyce from B. W. Huebsch and Lawrence Pollinger, and a letter to Beach from Huebsch. The second series consists of three letters and a telegram between Beach and Pollinger, and includes a letter to Joyce from Pollinger.

   Other correspondents in the Feinberg Collection include James Stephens, Frank Budgen, T. Sturge Moore, James Starkey, Nora Joyce, and Paul Leon. In addition, three letters, one from Caresse Crosby to J. W. N. Sullivan, one from Sullivan to Crosby, and one from Joyce to Harry and Caresse Crosby, along with three parts of Tales of Shem and Shaun (published by Black Sun Press), are housed in the Caresse Crosby Collection in the Morris Library. Our extensive Black Sun Press archive has close affinities to James Joyce and his circle.

   The Feinberg collection includes a copy of the 1927 International Protest against Samuel Roth's unauthorized publication of sections of Ulysses. Five names, written in pen, have been added to the long typed list of supporters of the protest. In addition, the voting record of the London Stage Society's governing board, which considered and rejected Joyce's Exiles for production in July of 1916, is housed in this collection.

4. The Francini-Bruni Collection of Joyce Correspondence 1920-1924

   The Francini-Bruni Collection contains three letters and two postcards from Joyce to Alessandro Francini-Bruni, deputy of the language school in Pola where Joyce taught English. They met in 1904, and Francini-Bruni became Joyce's first close friend in Europe. The letters, all written in Italian, are often humorous and largely concern Joyce's successes during the early 1920s. Only one of the five letters remains unpublished.

5. The Richard Wallace Collection of James Joyce

   The Richard Wallace collection includes both correspondence, covering the years 1921-1925, and manuscripts (1921-1929). Six letters and two cards from Joyce to Richard Wallace, only two of which are published, make up the correspondence. Wallace, an American book illustrator and advertising businessman, and his wife met the Joyces in Paris in the early 1920s, and the two couples became close. In the correspondence, Joyce discusses what he is working on, sending Wallace copies (not present here) of chapters of Ulysses he has finished. Joyce also mentions that he has completed the "Shem and Shaun" and "Anna Livia Plurabelle" sections of Work in Progress. The manuscripts, largely humorous in nature, consist of three quatrains and an eight-line song, all unpublished. One of the quatrains responds to critics of Joyce's style and is signed "Shem the Penman." The manuscripts are all written in Joyce's hand and signed by the author.

6. Miscellaneous Holdings of James Joyce

   The other holdings concerning James Joyce include seven letters from Joyce to various people, including Ivan Goll, Kay Boyle, and W. K. Magee, covering the years 1922-1936. These letters deal mainly with literary matters. In addition to the letters from Joyce, the library houses a copy of a 1927 poem by Joyce about the artist Patrick Tuohy, entitled "P. J. T.," galley proofs of part of "Anna Livia Plurabelle," intended for the London Calendar, and a line drawing of Joyce by Gregory Orloff.

   Correspondence and manuscripts about Joyce and his works comprise the largest part of the miscellaneous material on Joyce. There are thirty-six letters and five manuscripts, a majority of which discuss or consist of critical writings on Joyce's works. The correspondence contains a series of five letters on Ulysses, including a letter from Sylvia Beach to the Sunwise Turn bookshop discussing problems distributing the book, as well as letters on binding and sales. Another series of sixteen letters (1929-1933), from Beach to C. K. Ogden, concerns the latter's preface to the Black Sun edition of "Tales Told of Shem and Shaun," and James Joyce recordings of his "Anna Livia Plurabelle." There are also eight letters between Richard Aldington and the author of James Joyce's World, Patricia Hutchins, covering the years 1953-1959, discussing Aldington's knowledge of Joyce as well as other literary matters. Also of interest is a prayer written by Joyce's grand aunt, Alicia O'Connell, which is with a letter from Sister Mary O'Connell to Richard Ellmann, and page proofs of Patricia Hutchins's James Joyce's World, annotated by Stanislaus Joyce.

   The holdings also include a broadside of the 1927 protest, by many international authors, of Samuel Roth's unauthorized publication of Ulysses, as well as a typed manuscript of Irish comedian Dan Bryant's song "Finnigan's Wake," and an audio cassette recording of the BBC production "James Joyce's Chamber Music Poems," with music by Geoffrey Molyneux Palmer.

Mary Lavin Papers 1953-1964

The Mary Lavin Papers are made up largely of manuscripts of about twenty of Lavin's short stories, mainly those collected in The Great Wave and Other Stories (1961) and In the Middle of the Fields (1969). In addition, there are fragments of (or notes on) essays written by Lavin on the short story, as well as a few letters concerning the return of manuscripts from magazines. Other than some fragments of "The Pastor of Six Mile Bush" and "A Gentle Soul" (composed earlier than 1951) on the reverse of later stories and a draft of "Catharsis" from 1953, nearly all of the manuscripts in the collection are dated 1958-1964. This large collection contains manuscripts of all but five of the stories from The Great Wave and all but one, "The Mock Auction," from In the Middle of the Fields. There are multiple versions of most of the stories in the collection, many in Lavin's hand, including fifteen to twenty drafts each of a number of stories and more than thirty drafts of "A Lucky Pair," "The Cuckoo Spit" and "One Summer." The collection documents Lavin's lengthy composing process, showing how carefully each story is reworked before it is ready for publication. The more than forty drafts of "One Summer," for example, range from August 1962 to October 1965.

Additional Mary Lavin holdings include letters and parts of manuscripts. Altogether there are eight letters dating from 1963 to 1977 as well as holograph fragments of drafts of her short story "The Cuckoo Spit," and her novel Mary O'Grady. The correspondence primarily concerns various publication discussions about her work. Correspondents include Denys Val Baker, The New Yorker, and Lord Dunsany. Lord Dunsany wrote eight letters to Lavin encouraging her writing and offering publishing advice. One file contains a forty-six page xerox copy of Lavin's thesis, entitled "The Construction of the Novel and Jane Austen," completed in 1936 at the National University of Ireland.

John Montague Papers 1962-1968

This collection of John Montague Papers, selected by the poet, is largely composed of poetry manuscripts, nearly all of which are from the poet's volume All Legendary Obstacles, published in 1966 by Liam Miller's Dolmen Press, and correspondence, mainly relating to Montague's book. The collection also includes a manuscript of explanatory criticism by Montague and a few miscellaneous items, including several reviews of All Legendary Obstacles and a postcard picture of the carvings at Khajurao, India, which inspired Montague's poem "Sentence for Konarak."

Most of the twenty-one manuscripts are typed; some are written in Montague's hand; and many have autograph revisions by the author. There are at least two, and often three or four, versions of all but one of the poems from All Legendary Obstacles (there are no manuscripts of "A Charm"). These give readers an excellent look at Montague's composing process. Among the poetry manuscripts is a prose piece by Montague, also titled "All Legendary Obstacles," discussing his style and poems and reacting to criticism of his work.

The twenty-six pieces of correspondence, which cover the years 1962-68, focus mainly on All Legendary Obstacles. Nearly half of the letters are from Liam Miller, and concern the publishing of Montague's book, including revision of poems, printing, and layout. Several correspondents, including John Jordan, editor of Poetry Ireland, and Denis Donoghue, offer insightful criticism of the poet's verse. The collection's only letter from Montague (to Aidan Higgins) mentions a "longer work" the poet has been "dreaming over for years," one he wants to publish "in sections, like the Cantos." Other correspondents include Robert Graves, Barrie Cooke (whose line drawing appears in Montague's book), Judith Evans, and Charles Tomlinson.

Selected Pagers of Eoin O'Mahony 1912-1971

The Selected Papers of Eoin O'Mahony, barrister, genealogist, newspaper columnist, radio personality, and lecturer, mainly document his time spent as a Visiting Professor in the Southern Illinois University at Carbondale Department of Journalism in 1966 and as Visiting Artist in 1967. O'Mahony's papers include correspondence, several manuscripts, and various printed matter about O'Mahony.

The correspondence consists of over 100 letters to and from O'Mahony, the majority of which were written between 1965 and 1971. One of the only letters dated before 1965 is a 1912 letter (photocopied) from O'Mahony's nephew. Much of the correspondence concerns O'Mahony's activities at and on behalf of Southern Illinois University, including many responses to his inquiries about the manuscripts of twentieth-century Irish writers, which he was trying to help obtain for Morris Library Special Collections. There is correspondence about O'Mahony's failed attempt to gain a nomination for the presidency of Ireland in 1966, about his Radio Eireann show "Meet the Clans," as well as personal correspondence filling O'Mahony in on what was happening in Ireland while he was out of the country. Among the correspondence are photocopies of material on faculty and students at Clongowes, Belvedere, and University College-Dublin, for O'Mahony's work on Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

There are two manuscripts among O'Mahony's selected papers, both in his own hand. One is a draft, signed by the author, of "A Memory of Brendan Behan." The other consists of twenty-three pages of autograph notes, often excerpts, from Wilfrid Scawen Blunt's My Diaries (published in New York by Alfred Knopf, 1921). The printed matter includes an issue of The Clongownian (1966), an article, several pamphlets, brochures, and a report. There are also xerox copies of "Eoin O'Mahony Talking," a Sunday Review column, from January 1960 to September 1962 (128 pages).

Additional holdings for Eoin O'Mahony are comprised almost entirely of correspondence, dated 1967-1970, including a series of twenty letters between O'Mahony and Thomas Jackson regarding the possibility of locating a branch of Southern Illinois University at Doneraill Court, as well as letters to Alan M. Cohn of the Morris Library and one from Hugh MacDiarmid to O'Mahony, concerning R. B. Wilkie. With the letters to Cohn there is also some material on Desmond Guinness, touring President of the Irish Georgian Society.

Selected Papers of Michael O'Neill 1949-1966

The Selected Papers of Michael O'Neill, biographer of Lennox Robinson, are composed mainly of correspondence--letters to O'Neill from friends and acquaintances of Lennox Robinson, and from Robinson himself. The majority of the sixty-nine letters from people other than Robinson are reminiscences of Lennox Robinson. Many correspondents remembered the playwright fondly, but a number noted that Robinson had his enemies. These apparently included Paul Vincent Carroll, who attacked the playwright harshly in his letter. Three of the correspondents, R. Brigid Ganly, Geraldine Cummins, and Shelah Richards, included manuscript reminiscences of Lennox Robinson with their letters. Other correspondents include Padraic Colum, Daniel Corkery, Elizabeth Coxhead (who discusses her deathbed visit to Robinson), Ernest Blythe, Denis Johnston, Sean O'Casey, John Crowe Ransom, and Mary Lavin.

The thirty-eight letters from Robinson to O'Neill contain personal correspondence and discussions of the work they were doing together on a book of Robinson's plays. Robinson also discusses plays he is writing, including his dramatization of Turgenev's Father and Son, as well as his Irish Press articles. In addition to the correspondence, the Selected Papers of Michael O'Neill include a manuscript, "Colum," and two printed articles, "Lady Gregory" and "Maurice Maeterlinck," by Lennox Robinson. There are also manuscripts about Lennox Robinson by Hilton Edwards and about James Joyce by Michael Lennon.

Brian O'Nolan Collection

The Brian O'Nolan collection in Morris Library is the largest O'Nolan holding in the world, measuring approximately six linear feet. It contains correspondence, most of it to and from O'Nolan between 1938 and 1966, as well as typescripts of all O'Nolan novels except At-Swim-Two-Birds. Also here are typescripts of the unfinished novel Slattery's Sago Saga and several short stories, among them "Ireland Home and Beauty." There are many reviews and news columns under O'Nolan's various pen names, including "A Weekly Look Round," "The Column Bawn," and "Cruiskeen Lawn"; manuscript articles, among them "Irish Whiskey Rebellion," "To the Irishman on the Street," "The Insect Play," and "Robinson's Cruise-O!"; and manuscript "sketches" and essays under the O'Nolan pseudonyms Flann O'Brien, George Knowall, and Myles na gCopaleen.

The collection also features manuscript stage plays, including The Boy from Ballytearim, Faustus Kelly, and Thirst; and manuscript teleplays, including "Boots and Saddle," "Hullaballoons at Christmas," "The Ideas of O'Dea," "Is TV a Good Thing?," "Playing the Game," "Present Problems," and "Wedding Bells." There are also a large assortment of newspaper and magazine reviews of O'Nolan's plays and novels; book jackets, notebooks, and photographs of O'Nolan; and a number of related books and magazines, including the 1943 Dublin edition of Faustus Kelly, the German editions of At-Swim-Two-Birds and The Hard Life, and Hugh Leonard's 1965 stage adaptation of The Dalkey Archive, entitled "When the Saints Go Cycling In."

The collection is of particular value to the researcher, not only because it affords access to original O'Nolan manuscripts, but also because it contains many items from obscure magazines and newspapers. The original material is divided into two sections: correspondence and manuscripts. Correspondence is in three groups: letters to, letters about, and letters by Brian O'Nolan. Manuscripts are arranged alphabetically by title, and each is followed by a group of pertinent news articles and photographs.

Conal O'Riordan

1. Conal O'Riordan [Norreys Connel] Collection

   The Conal O'Riordan collection consists primarily of letters to O'Riordan during his short tenure as director of the Abbey Theatre, following the death of John Millington Synge. Most of the letters are related to Abbey Theatre activities. The collection of over seventy letters covers the years 1907 to 1923, with the exception of one letter dated 1942. Correspondents include Sara Allgood, Leon Brody, Lord Dunsany, Lady Gregory, Patricia Hoey, Annie Horniman, Charles Joze, M. McConaghy, Lennox Robinson, George Bernard Shaw, Allen Wade, A. Patrick Wilson, and William Butler Yeats. The letters cover a wide range of theatrical subjects including various plays, the expenses of the theatre, tours, different theaters, and other theatrical personalities. Also included in the collection are two letters from O'Riordan to Yeats and one letter from O'Riordan to the Editor of the Irish Independent.

2. Additional Holdings -- Conal O'Riordan

   Additional Conal O'Riordan holdings consist of several letters, a manuscript, and some miscellaneous documents. A few letters dated 1926-29, exchanged between O'Riordan and Leon M. Lion, concern O'Riordan's play Napoleon's Josephine. Eight other holograph letters, dated 1888-1897, are from Alice Meynell to Conal O'Riordan and to Mrs. O'Riordan. The manuscript is a typescript of a play, The Delights of Deceit, a Comedy in Three Acts, by F. Norreys Connell [pseud.], bound in three volumes.

Richard F. Peterson Faculty Papers 1976-1982

These papers, covering the years 1976-1982, contain critical work on a variety of authors, but a majority of the papers focus on Mary Lavin. There are thirty-one letters, mainly from Lavin to Richard Peterson, as well as the manuscript of "From Athenry to Bective: The Common Materials of Art" (chapter one of Peterson's Twayne English Authors Series book on Lavin) and catalogs of several Mary Lavin collections. There are also tapes of an interview with Lavin, some photocopied pages of an interview with Lavin, and "The Girders," an early story that remained unpublished until 1995.

The Lavin-Peterson correspondence (1976-1980) is predominately literary, concerning Lavin's career as a writer, including her dealings with publishers, with the reediting and rewriting of her stories and novels, as well as with getting grants and doing readings.

The papers contain Peterson's writings on other Irish authors as well, including three drafts of an essay on W. B. Yeats and Norreys Connell (published in the Yeats Annual for 1983), a transcript (with revisions) of Peterson's 1982 Harry T. Moore Lecture, "Joyce at 100," and uncorrected proof pages of his 1982 Twayne's English Author Series book on W. B. Yeats.

Lennox Robinson

1. Lennox Robinson Collection

   The Lennox Robinson Collection contains several correspondence series, forty play manuscripts which often feature multiple drafts, thirty-three short stories, and much of Robinson's non-fiction writing, as well as his scrapbooks of newspaper clippings and playbills. Nearly every aspect of this collection reflects Robinson's involvement with Irish theatre. Correspondents include William Butler Yeats, Lady Gregory, George Russell, George Bernard Shaw, Sean O'Casey, Gerard Fay, Sean O'Faolain, Nora Robinson, Oliver St. John Gogarty, and James Stephens. The letters date, in general, from 1909 to 1954 but also include several postcards sent to Robinson's wife Dolly after his death.

   Among the manuscripts are drafts of Robinson's early plays, including Harvest, as well as the more well-known plays such as The Clancy Name, White-Headed Boy, The Big House, and The Lost Leader. The play manuscripts are in various stages of drafting. Consequently, they provide insight into Robinson's composing process from the earliest, roughest sketches through to the final polished products. He appeared to be continually revising even as he directed the plays on stage.

   The non-fiction writings consist of forty-three of Robinson's "At the Play" columns as well as several of his essays on Irish topics. Drafts of his partially autobiographical novel The Boy from Ballineed are also in the holdings. In addition, this series contains eleven of the "I Sometimes Think" manuscripts as well as over twenty other essays written primarily about Irish artists. These non-fiction manuscripts reveal Robinson's opinions about theatre and the interplay between director, writer, and actor/actress. A series of lecture notes, in various stages of completion, shows how Robinson approached historically the subject of the Irish theatre.

   Finally, three scrapbooks of press cuttings, play programs, and posters from the years of Robinson's activity with the Abbey Theatre complete the collection.

2. W.B. Yeats Correspondence in the Lennox Robinson Collection

   This series contains ninety-seven letters from William Butler Yeats to Lennox Robinson, covering the years 1913-1935. The letters are arranged chronologically where dating is possible and grouped into folders by place of origin. Two folders contain letters which could not be dated and six letters to people other than Robinson.

   The overwhelming majority of the letters in the series are concerned with Abbey Theatre business, especially discussions of plays being considered for production by the Abbey while Yeats was serving on the Theatre Board of Directors. This discussion often includes whether the plays were accepted or rejected (or simply recommended) by Yeats and Lady Gregory. Yeats offers a good deal of constructive criticism of many plays he has read, often suggesting revisions of scenes and acts. In some cases, these suggested revisions are extensive and specific, with the acceptance of the play depending on whether or not the revisions are made. These kinds of letters correspond to Lennox Robinson's time as manager/producer of the Abbey and give readers a sense of the importance of Yeats's role in shaping productions at the theater, even from afar.

   Although Yeats sometimes mentions what he is working on (his memoirs, poetry, lectures, etc.), and includes copies of corrections to "Hour Glass" and a manuscript of "Crazy Jane and the King" (both are housed in the Yeats Manuscript series), there is relatively little personal or literary material about Yeats in this series. There are some gaps in Yeats's correspondence to Robinson, most notably during Robinson's first years as manager of the Abbey Theatre (1909-1913), and the last few years of Yeats's life (1935-1939). Also, there are almost no letters from the period 1923-1926.

   A number of the letters are significant for the comments Yeats makes on the effects of the violence of the Irish civil war and struggle for power on the future of the Abbey. Brief discussions of theories of drama in general and opportunities for Irish dramatists after the war appear in several letters. For example, after suggesting some changes to one of Sean O'Casey's plays in a letter of 14 Aug. [1922?], Yeats says, "If we let O'Casey fall back into his mechanical propaganda we may ruin him." Of the letters to people other than Robinson, the most significant one is to Prof. Edward Dowden (19 May [1895]), which discusses Yeats's attempt to visit Oscar Wilde in prison.

3. Additional Holdings -- Lennox Robinson

   Additional material relating to Lennox Robinson is comprised of correspondence and manuscripts concerning the theatre and Ireland. The correspondence, which took place over the years 1920-1950 from Robinson to Gabriel Fallon, an Irish actor, discusses various theater matters including the history of the Dublin Drama League with a partial list of plays performed.

   In correspondence with T. C. Murray, Robinson praises Murray's plays and discusses the presentation of Autumn Fire at the Abbey. Various letters about business matters pertaining to the production of plays at the Abbey also include a 1930 letter to George Bernard Shaw requesting permission to produce The Apple Cart. The reply by Shaw on the same page tells Robinson that it is inappropriate to do the play at this time because of a previous agreement with Barry Jackson.

   A 167-page notebook in Robinson's hand concerns the 1798 uprising in Ireland, including a description of the leaders, particularly Robert Emmet, and their 1802-03 trial in Dublin.

   Another file contains the carbon of a typed seven-page manuscript with Robinson's corrections of a short story entitled "The Girls." Also in the files are twelve pieces of miscellaneous material relating to Robinson's stay as visiting professor at Bowling Green University, Bowling Green, Ohio, in 1947, including a copy of a 1948 letter from Robinson to Frederick G. Walsh, and an invitation to and an announcement of his play The Lucky Finger, starring Sara Allgood.

George W. Russell (AE)

The miscellaneous holdings concerning George Russell, also known as "AE," contain over forty letters from Russell to various people, four manuscripts, and an oil painting by AE. Ranging over the years 1907 through 1934, the letters cover such topics as AE's paintings (two letters contain sketches), the Irish political situation, and various literary matters. One file contains scattered letters, dated 1920-1934, eleven pieces in all, from AE to Gertrude Kurath, Frederick Prokosch, Dorothy Multon, and others, discussing his poetry and explaining how he adopted the pseudonym "AE." Also in the holdings, along with two letters from AE to Theodore Spicer-Simson, is a 1922 letter from Lady Gregory to Spicer-Simson concerning Yeats.

The four manuscripts in these files are handwritten, signed poems, three of which, "Midsummer Eve," "Unmeet," and "Platonics," are undated. A fourth one-page poem is dated February, 1927, and is untitled.

Francis Stuart

1. Francis Stuart Papers

   The Francis Stuart Papers, covering the years 1932 to 1971, consist of three series: manuscripts, workbooks, and letters and clippings. Although the collection covers the years during which almost all of Stuart's novels and plays were published, the papers document well only the author's work from 1940-1975, including two published novels, Victors and Vanquished (1959) and Black List, Section H (1975).

   The manuscripts, 1940-1971, the largest segment of the collection, contain primarily drafts of novels, plays, and short stories by Stuart. Included in this series are the drafts of the unpublished novels Back to Suffer (begun in June 1960), A Trip Down the River (begun in November 1959), as well as a fragment of The Water Gardener (begun in November 1962). Two of Stuart's published novels, Black List, Section H and Victors and Vanquished, and two plays, Flynn's Last Dive and Strange Guest are also here. Researchers interested in the development of an individual work will find Stuart's novel Victors and Vanquished to be the most extensively documented work in this and the workbooks series, which contains, in chronological order, notes on some of Stuart's published and unpublished novels, most of which are already included in the manuscript series.

   The letters and clippings file includes letters from Stuart's family, friends, and acquaintances, among them the writers Heinrich Boll, Compton Mackenzie, Liam O'Flaherty, Ezra Pound, and George Bernard Shaw. Most of these letters relate to literary matters, including criticism of Stuart's works and discussion of the other writers' works. This series also contains correspondence with Stuart's publishers, including many from Victor Gollancz, Ltd., who published a great number of the author's novels. There are also personal letters from his wife, Iseult Gonne Stuart, documenting family matters. Additional Francis Stuart material includes a 1932 letter from Stuart to Dr. Percy Fridenberg and manuscripts of two poems, "In April" and "Be As a Trembling Petal." Also collected is an early autograph letter dated 15 January 1924.

2. Geoffery Elborn Collection of Francis Stuart Papers

   The collection contains materials related to Elborn's biography Francis Stuart: A Life (1990), including sixty-five pages of extensively annotated typescripts by Francis Stuart as well as several letters from Stuart and a signed original photograph. The collection also includes several typescript versions of chapters of the biography, correspondence about Stuart from friends and acquaintances, and 300 pages of transcriptions by the biographer from Stuart's personal diary covering the years 1942-1960.

   The correspondence from Stuart to Elborn is both personal and professional, with corrections for (and comments on) drafts of the biography, as well as a discussion of old friends from before the war. Typescripts include Stuart's lectures on Beckett's Murphy and Malone Dies, and Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground, reminiscences of Flann O'Brien in the 1930s and 1950s, and "What is Truth?," and "Upheavals in Literature." Some of these include Stuart's autograph revisions and notes. The collection contains correspondence to Elborn from Stuart's old friends, acquaintances, children of people Stuart knew, and government officials, including replies to Elborn's requests for government documents relating to Stuart's activities during World War II. In addition to the transcriptions from Stuart's diary, the collection includes annotated typescripts of many chapters of the biography, photocopies of an interview, numerous reviews and articles, copies of transcriptions of Stuart's war broadcasts from Germany, and photocopies of a large number of letters to and from Stuart.

3. W.J. McCormack Collection of Francis Stuart Papers 1949-1974

   This collection contains correspondence, typescripts, and other material, mainly relating to A Festschrift for Francis Stuart on His Seventieth Birthday, 28th April 1972, edited by McCormack and published by Dolmen Press in 1972. The correspondence includes twenty-two original letters from Stuart, nearly all to McCormack, as well as several letters to McCormack from others. In addition, there are several typescripts of short works by Stuart, galley proofs and unsewn gatherings of the festschrift, a typescript of John Jordan's "Things to Live For," which is part of the festschrift, and miscellaneous ephemera relating to a lecture and play by Stuart.

   Stuart's letters to McCormack, covering the years 1969-1974, discuss several of his novels, his ideas on violence and prison and their effects on writers, and on being neglected by the public. Stuart also discusses his Saville Hicks Memorial Lecture "The Meaning of Freedom," Who Fears to Speak (his play about Terence Mac Swiney), an interview with Frank Kermode, and the poems of McCormack, John Berryman, and John Jordan. The collection contains two drafts of "The Meaning of Freedom," one signed, with revisions and corrections by Stuart, the other a later version with an introduction, a few corrections, and a letter to the Reverend Kenneth Wright. An unsigned typescript of Stuart's short story "The Stormy Petrel," with minor corrections apparently made by the author, is also included in the collection. Although the dates of the collection are 1949-1974, the only item composed prior to 1969 is a short letter from Stuart to the President of the Irish Academy of Letters dated 24 September 1949.

H. Lytton Wilson Collection of William Butler Yeats

The H. Lytton Wilson Collection contains both letters and manuscripts from Mrs. Wilson's time as Yeats's typist. The two letters, dated Dec. 2 and Jan. 12 (n.y.), concern Yeats's payment to her and some editing changes. The manuscripts, in various stages of drafting and completion, include: "Coole Park" from Dramatis Personae, "Introduction to Fighting the Waves," "The Holy Mountain," "An Irish Historical Note," "The King of the Great Clock Tower," "A Note on Louis Lambert," "Michael Robartes Foretells," "Somebody at Parnell's Funeral," "Three Songs to the Same Tune," and several pages of A Vision.

Of particular interest are the manuscripts from A Vision. Divided into eight parts, these drafts give the researcher an excellent insight into Yeats's composing process. For example, in the first part, some of the typed pages have more than half of the text crossed out and other pages have been completely marked out. Between the lines and along the sides of these pages, Yeats inserted corrections in his own hand. He also renumbered the pages. The corrections and insertions vary from single letters to entire paragraphs.

Miscellaneous Holdings -- Yeats Family

The manuscript holdings concerning the Yeats family are composed primarily of letters from William Butler, Lily, Elizabeth Corbet, John Butler, and Jack Butler Yeats concerning personal and public matters. Many of the over forty letters from William Butler Yeats are not dated; other dates range from 1894 to 1937. Subjects covered include business matters concerning various plays and books or attending to social obligations. One 1918 letter from Jack Butler Yeats to a Mr. Allhusen lists some of his paintings and their prices. Selected letters, 1938-39, of the Yeats family to Vernon Watkins include three letters from William Butler Yeats, March 19, June 2, and Oct. 23, 1938, and miscellaneous material relating to the Cuala Press. Also included are three photographs of W. B. Yeats.

Selected Arland Ussher Correspondence 1921-1959

This collection of selected correspondence of Arland Ussher, philosopher, art critic, and Gaelic scholar, consists largely of an exchange of letters between Joseph Hone, Irish critic and biographer, and Ussher. There are over 200 letters, most of them to or from Hone. The collection also includes letters from Edmund Blunden, Austin Clarke, Oliver St. John Gogarty, Jack Grene, Augustus John, William Kirkpatrick Magee, Sacheverell Sitwell, and Robert N. D. Wilson. In their correspondence, Hone and Ussher discuss philosophy, including that of Swift, Berkeley, Hegel, and Kant, as well as books by Ussher himself, including Face and Mind of Ireland. Gogarty comments on Yeats, and what the poet knew of Berkeley. A typed copy of Yeats's "Crazy Jane and the King," which Ussher apparently intended to discuss in one of his books, is housed with some of the letters between Gogarty and Ussher.

Other Irish writers, including Joyce and Shaw, are also subjects of discussion by the correspondents in this collection. In some cases, manuscripts accompany the letters. These include a four-page typescript entitled "Rossi ('Calling Lady Chatterley's Bluff') The Technicism and Unreality of Love," as well as an outline of chapters for a book, and a list of names titled "An Anthology of Modern Philosophers." In addition, the holdings contain a 1953 letter from Ussher to Mr. Spicer-Simson about the latter's photographs of Ussher's medallions of Joyce, Shaw, and Yeats.