The Gresham Publishing Company. 



The Cabinet of 

 Irish Literature: 



Selections from the Works of the Chief 

 Poets, Orators, and Prose Writers of 

 Ireland. Edited by Charles A. Read, F.R.H.S., 

 and Katharine Tynan Hinkson. In 4 vol- 

 umes, super-royal 8vo, cloth extra, gilt edges. 



Coulson Kcrnahan 



As there is an Irish Nationality, so there is an Irish Literature, n 

 which that Nationality has found expression. And what a magnifi- 

 cent Literature it is! how brilliant the roll of Irish writers from Swift, 

 Steele, and Goldsmith, to Sheridan, Grattan, Moore, and the score of 

 gifted men and women who are identified with the present renaissance 

 of Irish letters ! 



The Cabinet of Irish Literature is an attempt to give every 

 Irishman, every Irish household, a share in the priceless treasures 

 with which the literary genius of the race has enriched mankind. 



It brings within the compass of a single great work a representative 

 selection of all that is best in Irish Literature. Not, be it said, the 

 old Irish Literature in the old Irish tongue ; of that most is unknown 

 to the people itself, though a good deal of it, in translation, will be 

 found in this book. By Irish Literature is meant the Literature read 

 and understood by the Irishmen of the present day — the expression 

 of the ideas they really feel, of the life they truly live, in Mayo, in 

 Limerick, in Cork, and in Derry. 



It is a selection made without fear or favour, free from any bias, 

 religious, political, or socia.. Merit is the only passport to its pages. 



It gives, in brief pointed biographical notices, the life-history of 

 every great Irish writer. We are enabled to realize the personality of the man as well as appreciate the 

 qualities of his work. 



It deals not only with the past but with the present ; and it is the only work that brings home to us by 

 illustrative ex'racts the great revival in Irish Literature that is now taking place. W. B. Yeats, Douglas 

 Hyde, George Bernard Shaw, Nora Hopper, Seumas MacManus, Richard Ashe King, George Egerton, Moira 

 O'Neill, are a few among the many scores of modern writers whose works are represented in the Cabinet. 



No Irishman who is proud of his nationality can afford to be without a work which thus focuses the 

 whole intellectual activity of the race. To the younger generation it will be an inexhaustible source of in- 

 spiration, a priceless influence in forming their taste, in moulding their character— in a word, in perpetuating 

 those qualities which now, as in the past, are associated with the name of Irishman. 



The Cabinet was originally planned by Mr. Charles Anderson Read, but this accomplished Irish poet and 

 novelist did not live to see the fruition of his hopes. His work was 

 completed by Mr. T. P. O'Connor, under whose auspices the first 

 edition was issued. Now, after the lapse of nearly a quarter of a 

 century, the time has come for a new edition of this monumental work, 

 whicn shall take due account of the extraordinary activity in Irish 

 letters during the intervening years. Under the able editorship of 

 Miss Katharine Tynan (Mrs. Katharine Tynan Hinkson), herself one 

 of Ireland's most distinguished writers, the work has been thoroughly 

 revised and brought down to the present hour. 



In its get-up it is all that a book of its great importance should be. 

 The illustrations are many and of the highest artistic value. Some of 

 the most eminent black-and-white artists of the day, including John 

 H. Bacon, Charles M. Sheldon, W. Rainey, R.I., G. P. Jacomb- 

 Hood, R. I., and W. H. Margetson, have been commissioned to illus- 

 trate typical scenes from the masterpieces of our literature, and these 

 drawings, rendered by the latest processes of photographic reproduc- 

 tion, and printed on specially prepared paper, add an unique charm 

 to the work. The Cabinet is further embellished with a large num- 

 ber of photographs of the most eminent Irish writers; and the cover 

 design, in gold upon green cloth, is the work of Talwin Morris, the 

 well-known designer. 



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F. Frankfort Moore 



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