(#169931) EARTH-BOUND: NINE STORIES OF IRELAND. Dorothy Macardle, Margaret Callan.

EARTH-BOUND: NINE STORIES OF IRELAND. Worcester, Mass. Published by The Harrigan Press, 1924. Octavo, pp. [1-2] [1-7] 8-108 [109-110: blank] [note: first and last leaves are blanks], original blue-gray marbled boards with blue cloth shelf back, front panel printed in black. First edition. Macardle was an Anglo-Irish author who knew Yeats and A.E., and is best known today in the fantasy genre for her later novels: UNEASY FREEHOLD (1942, U.S. title: THE UNINVITED); FANTASTIC SUMMER (1946, U.S. title, THE UNFORSEEN); and DARK ENCHANTMENT (1953). "Macardle's participation in the Irish National Movement led to her incarceration in 1922 at Mountjoy Gaol, where she wrote her first ghost stories, later collected in the scarce EARTHBOUND (1924)." - Sullivan (ed), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, p. 275. "Loosely-linked stories about Ireland, told among expatriates in Philadelphia, imbued with nostalgia, republican fervor and respect for spiritual powers, both pagan and Christian. What the narrator misses more than anything else is 'that sense one has everywhere in Ireland... of the companionship of the dead.' Of the nine stories here all but two have supernatural content. In most, the ghosts of the dead return to help the living, or vice versa, though in 'Samhain' they also try to lure the living to come away with them. 'The Portrait of Roisin Dhu' tells of an impassioned artist who sucks the energy, the very life force, out of his subjects, in order to animate his work. The most interesting perhaps is 'The Return of Niav,' in which a young woman enthusiastic about the old Druid ways is determined to raise her daughter away from the corrupting influence of secular modernity, though she frets that the girl has no playmates; a strange young woman comes out of the woods one day and becomes very close to the girl -- too close -- and the mother realizes too late that the stranger is from Faery; on the feast of Beltane she ritualistically turns the girl into a changeling. A cautionary tale for those who would play with fire. Quality material with nice twists on old tropes, showing everywhere the evidence of a significant artistry." - Robert Eldridge. Not in Bleiler (1948; 1978) or Reginald (1979; 1992). Named one of the year's Best Books of Short Stories in Edward J. O'Brien's Yearbook of the American Short Story. Bookplate of Angela Wren Quin affixed to the front paste-down. Cloth rubbed at spine ends, corner tips lightly worn, first and last leaves tanned (interaction with endpapers), a very good copy. Quite scarce. This is one of the copies distributed by the author with small label affixed to the title page that reads: "Published in Ireland by the / Author, at Frankfort House, Dartry, Dublin." Verso of last blank has the rubber-stamp of Dublin's "Emton Press." (#169931).

Price: $750.00

See all items in Irish Fiction, Women
See more items by ,
Printing identification statement for this book:
No statement of printing.