JOHN SHERMAN, AND DHOYA

1891. [Yeats's first book in the US] New York: Cassell Publishing Company, (1891). 2 pp undated ads. Original light lavender linen-grain cloth on flexible boards, lettered in darker lavender.

First American Edition of Yeats's third book -- and Yeats's first book to be printed and published in America. Yeats's first two books were MOSADA (Dublin 1886 in wrappers, 14 copies extant), and THE WANDERINGS OF OISIN (Kegan Paul in London 1889, 500 copies). Comprising a novella and a short story, JOHN SHERMAN AND DHOYA (no comma) earned Yeats forty pounds at a time when he really needed it. Thirteen years later Yeats wrote that this book was "written when I was very young & knew no better." The UK edition was issued (both in wrappers and in yapped cloth) as the tenth volume in T. Fisher Unwin's "Pseudonym Library"; the US edition, as here, was printed in New Jersey and issued as the tenth volume in Cassell's similarly-sized and similarly-themed "Unknown" Library. The UK and US editions are similar in size and typography, and both editions of this title were issued in November 1891. This is an attractive copy of this fragile, flexible-boards volume; there is essentially no external wear nor soil, and it would be FINE except that the front endpaper is cracked. Very scarce: there are currently ten copies of the first UK edition on the market, but NO other first US edition. Wade 5 (the earliest American edition cited in the Wade bibliography).