Cuala Press

The Cuala Press was an Irish private press set up in 1908 by Elizabeth Yeats with support from her brother William Butler Yeats that played an important role in the Celtic Revival of the early 20th century. Originally Dun Emer Press, from 1908 until the late 1940s it functioned as Cuala Press, publicising the works of such writers as Yeats, Lady Gregory, Colum, Synge, and Gogarty.

Origins

At the suggestion of Emery Walker, Elizabeth Yeats trained as a printer at the Women's Printing Society in London. In 1902, Elizabeth Yeats and her sister Lily joined their friend Evelyn Gleeson in the establishment of a craft studio near Dublin which they named Dun Emer. Dun Emer became a focus of the burgeoning Irish Arts and Crafts Movement, specialising in printing, embroidery, and rug and tapestry-making. Elizabeth ran the printing operation, and Lily managed the needlework department.

In 1904, the operation was reorganised into two parts, the Dun Emer Guild run by Gleeson and Dun Emer Industries under the direction of the Yeats sisters, and in 1908 the groups separated completely. Gleeson retained the Dun Emer name, and the Yeats sisters established Cuala Industries at nearby Churchtown, which ran the Cuala Press and an embroidery workshop. The sisters' cousin Ruth Pollexfen served as an apprentice to Lily and gave embroidery lessons at the workshop. Cuala (or Cualu) was the name of the Gaelic territory covering south Dublin before the Norman conquest of Ireland.

Operations

It was intended that the new press would produce work by writers associated with the Irish Literary Revival. They ended up publishing over 70 titles in total, including 48 by W. B. Yeats. The press closed in 1946.

The Cuala was unusual in that it was the only Arts and Crafts press to be run and staffed by women and the only one that published new work rather than established classics. In addition to Yeats, Cuala published works by Ezra Pound, Jack B. Yeats, Padraic Colum, Robin Flower, Elizabeth Bowen, Oliver St John Gogarty, Lady Gregory, Douglas Hyde, Lionel Johnson, Patrick Kavanagh, Louis MacNeice, John Masefield, Frank O'Connor, John Millington Synge, John Butler Yeats, Rabindranath Tagore and others.

After Elizabeth Yeats died in 1940, the work of the press was carried on by two of her long-time assistants, Esther Ryan and Mollie Gill under the management of Georgie Hyde-Lees.A Brief Account of the Cuala Press Formerly the Dun Emer Press Founded by Elizabeth Corbet Yeats in MCMIII (1971) The final Cuala title was ''Stranger in Aran'' by Elizabeth Rivers, which was published on 31 July 1946.

In 1969 the press was taken up by W. B. Yeats' children, Michael and Anne Yeats, with Liam Miller. Some titles were run in the 1970s, and archives are still held by the press.

Books published by the press

*''Poetry & Ireland: Essays'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1908.
*''Poems & Translations'' by J. M. Synge, Cuala Press, 1909.
*''The Green Helmet: And Other Poems'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1910.
*''Deirdre of the Sorrows: A Play'' by J. M. Synge, Cuala Press, 1910.
*''Synge and the Ireland of his Time'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1911.
*''Selections from the Writings of Lord Dunsany'' by Baron Dunsany, Cuala Press, 1912
*''Poems Written in Discouragement'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1913
*''A Woman's Reliquary'' by Edward Dowden, Cuala Press, 1913.
*''A Selection from the Love Poetry of W. B. Yeats'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1913.
*''Responsibilities: Poems and a Play'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1914.
*''The Post Office: A Play'' by Rabindranath Tagore, Cuala Press, 1914.
*''The Hour Glass'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1914.
*''John M. Synge: A Few Personal Recollections with Biographical Notes'' by John Masefield, Cuala Press, 1915.
*''Reveries over Childhood and Youth'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1915.
*''Certain Noble Plays of Japan'' by Ernest Fenollosa, edited by Ezra Pound, Cuala Press, 1916.
*''Passages from the Letters of John Butler Yeats'' by John Butler Yeats, edited by Ezra Pound, Cuala Press, 1917.
*''Wild Swans at Coole: Other Verses and a Play in Verse'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1917.
*''Kiltartan Poetry Book'' by Lady Gregory, Cuala Press, 1918.
*''Two Plays for Dances'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1919.
*''Further Letters of John Butler Yeats: Selected by Lennox Robinson'', Cuala Press, 1920.
*''Michael Robartes and the Dancer'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1920.
*''Four Years'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1921.
*''Seven Poems and a Fragment'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1922.
*''An Offering of Swans'' by Oliver St. John Gogarty, Cuala Press, 1923.
*''Early Memories: Some Chapters of Autobiography'' by John Butler Yeats, Cuala Press, 1923.
*''The Cat and the Moon and Certain Poems'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1924.
*''The Bounty of Sweden: A Meditation, and a Lecture Delivered before the Royal Swedish Academy and Certain Notes'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1925.
*''Love's Bitter-Sweet: Translations from the Irish Poets of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries'' by Robin Flower, Cuala Press, 1925.
*''Estrangement: Being Some Fifty Thoughts from a Diary kept by William Butler Yeats in the Year Nineteen Hundred and Nine'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1926.
*''Poems by Thomas Parnell'' by Thomas Parnell, edited by Lennox Robinson, Cuala Press, 1927.
*''October Blast'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1927.
*''A Little Anthology of Modern Irish Verse'' edited by Lennox Robinson, Cuala Press, 1928.
*''The Death of Synge: And Other Passages from an Old Diary'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1928.
*''A Packet for Ezra Pound'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1928.
*''Lyrics and Satires from Tom Moore'' by Thomas Moore, edited by Seán O'Faoláin, Cuala Press, 1929.
*''Wild Apples'' by Oliver St. John Gogarty, Cuala Press, 1930.
*''Coole'' by Lady Gregory, Cuala Press, 1931.
*''Stories of Michael Robartes and his Friends: An Extract from a Record Made by his Pupils: And a Play in Prose'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1931.
*''Words for Music Perhaps and Other Poems'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1932.
*''The Wild Bird's Nest: Poems from the Irish'' by Frank O'Connor, Cuala Press, 1932.
*''Arable Holdings'' by F.R. Higgins, Cuala Press, 1933.
*''A Pilgrimage in the West'' by Mario Rossi, Cuala Press, 1933.
*''The King of the Great Clock Tower, Commentaries and Poems'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1934.
*''The Words upon the Window Pane: A Play in One Act, with Notes upon the Play and its Subject'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1934.
*''Poems'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, Cuala Press, 1935.
*''Dramatis Personae'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1935.
*Broadsides: a collection of old and new songs, 1935. / Songs by W. B. Yeats, James Stephens, F. R. Higgins, Frank O'Connor, Lynn Doyle, Bryan Guiness, Padraic Colum; illustrations by Jack B. Yeats nd others music by Arthur Duff. Cuala Press 1935.
*''Some Passages from the Letters of AE to W. B. Yeats'' by George William Russell, Cuala Press, 1936.
*''Broadsides: A Collection of New Irish and English Songs, 1935'' edited by Dorothy Wellesley and W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1937.
*''Lords and Commons translations from the Irish'' by Frank O'Connor, Cuala Press, 1938.
*''New Poems'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1938.
*''On the Boiler'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1939.
*''Last Poems and Two Plays'' by W. B. Yeats, Cuala Press, 1939.
*''Elbow Room'' by Oliver St. John Gogarty, Cuala Press, 1939.
* ''If I Were Four-And-Twenty''.  Yeats, W. B. (1940)
* ''Some Memories Of W.B.Yeats''. Masefield, John. (1940).
* ''The Last Ditch.''  Macneice, Louis.(1941)
* ''Yeats, W.B. Florence Farr, Bernard Shaw And W.B. Yeats.''. Edited By Clifford Bax
* ''Three Tales'' O'Connor, Frank. (1941).
* ''Veterans And Other Poems.''  MacDonagh, Donagh. (1941).
* ''Seven Winters  Bowen,'' Elizabeth. (1942)
* ''The Great Hunger.''  Kavanagh, Patrick. (1942
* ''A Picture Book'' O’Connor, Frank. . Illustrated By Elizabeth Rivers (1943)
* ''La La Noo.''  Yeats, Jack B (1943)
* ''Pages From A Diary Written In Nineteen Hundred And Thirty.''  Yeats, William Butler.  (1944)
* ''Selected Poems'' Ap Gwilym, Dafydd.  Translated By Nigel Heseltine, With A Preface By Frank O’Connor (1944)
* ''The Love Story Of Thomas Davis Told In The Letters Of Annie Hutton.''  Davis, Thomas.Edited With An Introduction By Joseph Hone; (1945)
* ''Stranger in Aran'' Elizabeth Rivers. (1946)

Notes

See also

* Responsibilities and Other Poems

References

*
*Lewis, Gifford. ''The Yeats sisters and the Cuala''. (Irish Academic Press, 1994).
*
Elizabeth Yeats at Ricorso

Further reading

*William M. Murphy. 'Dun Emer, 1902–1908'; 'William Butler Yeats and the Weird Sisters'; 'Cuala: the Partnership 1908–1923'; 'Cuala: the Separation, 1924–1940': in ''Family Secrets: William Butler Yeats and His Relatives''. Syracuse University Press, 1995; Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1995.

External links

Cuala Press Collection
including correspondence and financial papers, is located at the Trinity College Dublin Library.

Cuala Press Broadside Collection, illustrated by Jack B. Yeats
is located at th
Special Collections/Digital Library
i
Falvey Memorial Library
at Villanova University.

Máire Gill Cuala Press collection
is located at th
John J. Burns Special Collections Library
at Boston College

Handwritten letters from Elizabeth Yeats
covering 1922-1939, held a
UCC Library

{{W. B. Yeats, state=collapsed

Arts and Crafts movement
Small press publishing companies
Publishing companies established in 1908
1908 establishments in Ireland
Companies based in Dublin (city)
Publishing companies of Ireland
Private press movement