The Aran Islands. With Drawings by Jack B. Yeats. Dublin: Maunsel & Co., 1907. First Edition, Second Issue. Pp, xii, 189 + advertisement; uncut. 12 full page black & white illustrations by Jack Yeats. Publisher’s original blue cloth titled lettered in gilt to upper cover and spine. Light wear along hinges, otherwise a nice bright copy.

The twelve drawings by Jack B. Yeats: (1) An island Man; (2) The Pier; (3) The Hooker’s owner; (4) Kelp-Making; (5) The Evictions; (6) Carrying Seaweed for Kelp; (7) A Four-Oared Curagh; (8) Man on Pier; (9) Thatching; (10) Porter; (11) An island Horseman; (12) The Man who told the Stories.

A small number of first issue copies were printed in December 1906 with that date on the title page. The 1907, second impression, is identical in format to the first issue.

John Millington Synge first travelled to the primitive, little-known Aran Islands in 1898. His trip proved to be a wonderfully fruitful and decisive experience. He then went back for part of each summer until 1902. ‘The Aran Islands,’ his memoir of those experiences, was first published in 1907, and the future playwright called it his ‘first serious piece of work.’