William Butler Yeats - Early Essays

This volume contains the first scholarly edition of Yeatss two most important volumes of criticism written during his youth and middle age, Ideas of Good and Evil and The Cutting of an Agate, both included by him in the 1924 volume Essays and from 1961 until recently available chiefly through the posthumous Essays and Introductions compilation. The front matter contains lists of abbreviations and illustrations, followed by the editors introduction. The essays themselves then follow, first IGE and then COA. After that come first Yeatss own prefaces to COA and his dedication of Essays (1924). A series of appendices presents a chronological list of essays by date of first publication, the omitted The Pathway, and omitted sections from seven other essays, including the illustrations that originally accompanied William Blake and His Illustrations to The Divine Comedy. The final section, Textual Matters and Notes, begins with an explanation of our textual policies and procedures, followed by lists of textual emendations and corrections. Explanatory notes include first background notes on fourteen frequently cited writers, followed by headnotes for each essay and identification of quotations and direct allusions in Yeatss texts. Finally, an index facilitates finding writers, works, and other topics referred to in the text.

Completing a project like this requires assistance from a variety of sources. We are pleased to acknowledge generous help from the following scholars: Morris Eaves, Neil Fraistat, Linda Gregerson, Margaret Harper, K. P. S. Jochum, Declan Kiely, Kerry Larson, Jerome McGann, James McGuire, William ODonnell, James Olney, Jonathan Price, Ann Saddlemyer, and H. Wayne Storey. We owe a special debt to Jon Alan Lanham, who provided us with a copy of his doctoral dissertation, A Critical Edition of Ideas of Good and Evil by W. B. Yeats (PhD diss., University of Toronto, 1976), which proved helpful throughout our work.

We are also pleased to acknowledge help from librarians and curators at the following collections: Boston Museum of Fine Arts (Joan Cummins), British Museum (Richard Blurton, Michael Boggan, Timothy Clark, Christopher Fletcher, Antony Griffiths, Peter Higgs), Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at University of Texas at Austin (Elizabeth Garver, Kurt Heinzelman, Tom Staley), National Library of Ireland (Catherine Fahy, Peter Kenny, Dnal Luanaigh), New York Public Library (Berg Collection: Isaac Gewirtz), University of London Library (Alun Ford), University of Michigan Library (Kathryn Beam, Peggy Daub, Franki Hand), University of New York at Stony Brook Yeats Archive (Kristen J. Nyitray), University of North Carolina Library (Charles Macnamara).

We have been fortunate to have exceptionally enthusiastic and competent research assistants. Richard Finneran acknowledges help from Brian Gempp, Jesse Graves, and Lauren Todd Taylor at the University of Tennessee. George Bornstein acknowledges help from Olivia Bustion, Russell McDonald, Jamie Olson, and Jenny Sorensen at the University of Michigan. The University of Michigan also provided timely research support through the Office of the Vice President for Research, the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Study, the College of Literature Science and Arts, and the Department of English. The University of Tennessee did so through the John C. Hodges Better English Fund.

THE EDITORS