The Ohio State University Rare Books and Manuscripts Library is currently exhibiting of some of their Irish literary holdings, including first printings and signed editions of some very influential and revered Irish writers. Visitors will explore the moment at the end of the nineteenth century and through the twentieth century when Irish writers burst boldly onto the international literary scene as they laid claimed to their cultural identity and political independence.
Of What is Past, or Passing, or to Come: The Irish Literary Renaissance is now open at the Thompson Library at The Ohio State University and will run through January 5, 2014, and is located in the Exhibit Hall on the first floor of the Library.
The exhibit features the works of William Butler Yeats, James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. This remarkable trio were not only the predominant writers of 20th century Ireland, but they are also considered among the greatest influences of world literature. Yeats’ The Tower is among the most appreciated volumes of modern poetry, and Joyce’s Ulysses and Beckett’s Waiting for Godot are arguably the greatest novel and drama, respectively, of the 20th century. In 1923, Yeats became the first Irish writer to win the Nobel Prize; in 1969 Beckett won his. James Joyce remains the greatest modern writer not to win the Nobel Prize.
Other Irish writers are featured as well, particularly Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney, who died this summer on August 30, 2013; historical pamphlets from the Irish quest for independence from Britain; and selected works from the Cuala Press, a fine press established by Elizabeth and Lily Yeats in 1902.
For further information contact Geoffrey D. Smith, Professor and Head of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, at smith.1@osu.edu or 614.688.4930.
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