YEATS, WILLIAM BUTLER. 1865-1939. Autograph Manuscript Signed ('WB Yeats'), a fair copy of 'When Helen Lived' for John Preece headed ('For John Preece'),

YEATS, WILLIAM BUTLER. 1865-1939.

Autograph Manuscript Signed ('WB Yeats'), a fair copy of 'When Helen Lived' for John Preece headed ('For John Preece'), 177 x 150 mm, ink on paper, recto of the first leaf of a bifolium, after 1916, with Preece's later Padova address affixed to a card verso of frame, framed and matted (271 x 271 mm).




PRESENTATION FAIR COPY OF YEATS'S 'WHEN HELEN LIVED' FOR AUSTRALIAN BOOKSELLER/PUBLISHER JOHN PREECE. 'When Helen Lived' was written in 1913 and appeared first in 1914, and Helen has clear parallels in his mythologizing of Maud Gonne. In 'The Death of Synge' Yeats recorded from a dream, July 6, 1909: 'Why should we complain if men ill-treat our Muses, while all they gave to Helen while she still lived was a song and a jest.' Its first book appearance was in his 1916
Responsibilities and Other Poems, alongside 'No Second Troy,' also referencing Gonne.

Preece was an Australian publisher along with his father F.W. Preece, and published the literary magazine
Desiderata beginning in 1929. In 1957, he retired from the firm and moved to Venice, then later to Padua.

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