Tao. A Version of the Chinese Classic of the Sixt Century B.C. Dublin: New Writers’ Press, 1971. First Edition, Limited Issue. Quarter parchemt over black paper boards, in publisher’s pictorial dust jacket. A fine bright copy.

First appearing in Arena literary magazine in 1964, the text reflects Hartnett’s early engagement with Eastern philosophy, a counterpoint to the Catholic, nationalist, and Anglophone traditions that framed much of mid‑century Irish writing.

Part translation, part poetic re‑imagining, and wholly characteristic of Hartnett’s restless search for linguistic and spiritual alternatives to the dominant literary culture of his time.