The Aran Islands. With Drawings by Jack B. Yeats. Dublin: Maunsel & Co., 1912. Library Edition. Pp, 256. Publisher’s navy cloth boards, ruled & lettered in gilt. A fine bright copy.

Illustrated with twelve full page black & white illustrations by Jack Yeats.

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 published in 1907, and the future playwright called it his ‘first serious piece of work.’