Yeats collection up for sale

A valuable literary collection including letters and a manuscript by WB Yeats will go under the hammer today.

Described as a “fine and important” Yeats collection, it is expected to fetch between €87,000 and €116,000.

The album was assembled by Sir Sydney Cockerell, a book collector, connoisseur and museum director.

Sir Sydney was also a friend of Yeats and other literary figures including William Morris, Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw and even Tolstoy.

The collection includes 18 letters signed by Yeats to Sir Sydney as well as a manuscript of his essay, The Tragic Theatre, written in 1910.

The letters date from 1902 to 1932 and include discussions of his own work as well as of other art and literature.

In a missive from 1917 he reacts modestly to congratulations on the award of the Nobel prize.

“I know that this honour is given less to me than to Irish literature & tradition & I am glad that this should be so. People here are grateful to me for winning them this recognition & life is pleasant…”

Yeats, who was born in Dublin, is a key figure in Irish literature, winning the Nobel prize for his plays but now recognised for his later poetry.

Educated both in England and Ireland, as a young man he was part of the London literary crowd at the turn of the century while also attempting to revive the tradition of literature in his homeland.

Yeats was a patriot but often railed against the hatred and bigotry of some Nationalists. He was appointed to the Irish Senate in 1922.

His volumes of poetry including The Wild Swans at Coole (1919), Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921) and The Tower (1928). He died in 1939.

The sale is being held at Sotheby’s in London.