Ella Young | Smoke of Myrrh, 1950, with autograph poems, and two other volumes

Ella Young

Threee volumes:

i) Smoke of Myrrh and Other Poems. [Santa Barbara, CA:] Pacific Coast Publishing Company, 1950. First edition, "Author's Copy" of 25 signed copies, with an additional three autograph poems by Young, autograph errata note, and further inscribed by the author to Dora Hagemeyer ("comrade in the Golden Fellowship, this book which may perhaps remind her of hours spent together"), 31 July 1954, russet morocco with blind-stamped upper cover, wear at corners and joints

ii) Marzillian and other poems. Oceano, CA: Harbison & Harbison, 1938. First edition, number 234 of 500 copies signed by the author, publisher's cloth

iii) The Wonder Smith and His Son. New York: Longman's, 1928. First edition, publisher's green cloth, stained and worn

all 8vo

Ella Young (1867-1965) was a poet who began her writing career as part of the Celtic Revival with an interest in mythology, Theosophy, and Irish Nationalism, counting AE, Maud Gonne, and Pádraig Pearse amongst her friends. She moved to California in the 1920s and these three books come from the second half of her life, when her circle included the Irish-American art collector Albert Bender and the photographer Ansel Adams. This important copy of Smoke of Myrrh was a gift to the poet and painter Dora Hagemeyer (1891-1989), a longstanding member of the bohemian artist community in Carmel-by-the-Sea.