AE’s Letters to Mínanlábáin. With an Introduction by Lucy Kingsley Porter. New York: Macmillan, 1937. First Edition. Pp 102. With frontispiece portrait of the author. Blue buckram boards lightly dust soiled, in pictorial dust jacket., contents in very good condition.

Presentation copy, Inscribed by Lucy Kingsley Porter on the front free endpaper.

A collection of intimate and casual letters written by George Russell to Arthur Kingsley Porter a distinguished scholar, Harvard professor and researcher of medieval architecture. Mínanlábáin was the name of a post office near Glenveagh Estate in North Co Donegal where A.E. visited on many occasions.

A wealthy American Porter has been called a ‘real-life Indiana Jones’. He was unique in the academic community, given he was a multimillionaire in his own right, and had the means to travel extensively.  A deep interest in Celtic cultures resulted in Porter coming to Ireland in the summers of the early 1930’s where he stayed in the estate he purchased, Glenveagh Castle in North west Donegal. He also purchased a fisherman’s cottage on Inishbofin Island off the north coast of the county. In June, 1933 he mysteriously vanished without trace from his island cottage while staying with his wife Lucy. His body was never found. A subsequent inquest found he probably had fallen from cliffs into the sea. However rumours abounded that he had faked his death in order to avoid a brewing scandal at his university back in the States.

A review of the book from ‘The Dublin Magazine’ July-Sept 1937 is loosely inserted. “I heartily recommend this beautifully printed volume to all lovers of A.E. It is a book which should be in every collection of his works.”