Stories of Red Hanrahan and The Secret Rose. Illustrated and Decorated by Norah McGuinness. London: Macmillan, 1927. First Edition. Pp, 182. Two plates in colour. Red buckram boards, front cover and spine decorated and ruled in black. Light spotting to contents with gift inscription to front free endpaper, otherwise a nice bright copy.

Illustrated with Two plates in colour & several line drawings in black & white.

Derry born McGuinness was a student when she first met W.B. Yeats in 1920s Dublin, and was just 22 when she designed a Drama League production of his play ‘The Only Jealousy of Emer’. Yeats was so impressed with Norah’s work that he later invited her to illustrate his version of Stories of Red Hanrahan and the Secret Rose (1905) which was republish in 1927. By obtaining this commission, McGuinness had not only proven that her modernist drawing style was suitable for Ireland’s most esteemed poet, but she was also guaranteed that the publication would be widely distributed.

[Wade 157].