Selected Poems. Lyrical and Narrative. London: Macmillan, 1932. Third Impression. Pp [x], 203. Portrait on title page by John Sargent. Smooth blue buckram, upper cover decorated in blind, title stamped in gilt to spine, cover design by Sturge Moore. A nice bright copy.

Inscribed by the Author on the front free endpaper:

“Commander & Mrs. Hillgarth from W.B. Yeats, Xmas 1935, Palma, Majorca.“

A truly remarkable inscription. In December 1935, while on Majorca collaborating with the Indian holy man Shri Purohit Swami on translations of the Upanishads, Yeats experienced his first major health crisis. Suffering from heart trouble and labored breathing, he at one point seemed in genuine peril. A Spanish physician proved of little help, but the British Vice-Consul, Alan Hillgarth—a fellow member of the Savile Club—took matters into his own hands, arranging for rest and proper care. The Swami urgently cabled George Yeats (his wife), and following her arrival in the new year, Yeats began a slow recovery.

Commander Alan Hillgarth, a naval captain with Anglo-Irish roots, went on to a distinguished career in naval intelligence during the Second World War—and it is quite possible that he was already operating in that sphere when he crossed paths with Yeats. A genial, sharp-witted, and decisive man, he would almost certainly have crossed paths professionally with Ian Fleming, and he stands as one of several plausible inspirations for the character and world of James Bond. After the war, he retired to an estate in Tipperary.

[Wade 165].