Editing Dun Emer Press

{{short description|1902-08 Irish private press founded and run by the Yeats siblings and Evelyn Gleeson}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Dun Emer Press
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| type = Publishing 
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| predecessor = <!-- or: | predecessors = -->
| founded = [[Evelyn Gleeson]]<br>[[Elizabeth Yeats]]<br>[[William Butler Yeats]]
| founder = 1902
| defunct = <!-- {{End date|YYYY|MM|DD}} -->
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| hq_location_country = Ireland 
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[[File:Dun Emer Press ,c. 1903.jpg|thumb|250px|{{center|The Dun Emer Press at work, ''ca.'' 1903}}]]
The '''Dun Emer Press''' (''fl.'' 1902–1908) was an [[Ireland|Irish]] [[private press]] founded in 1902 by [[Evelyn Gleeson]], [[Elizabeth Yeats]] and her brother [[William Butler Yeats]], part of the [[Celtic Revival]]. It was named after the legendary [[Emer]] and evolved into the [[Cuala Press]].

==History==
In 1902, [[Elizabeth Yeats|Elizabeth]] and her sister [[Lily Yeats]] joined [[Evelyn Gleeson]] in establishing a craft studio at [[Dundrum, Dublin|Dundrum]], near [[Dublin]], called Dun Emer. This specialized in printing and other crafts, with Elizabeth Yeats in charge of the printing press.<ref>John Sheehy, ''The Rediscovery of Ireland's Past: The Celtic Revival 1830–1930'' (Thames and Hudson, 1980), p. 158</ref><ref>William M. Murphy, ''Dun Emer, 1902–1908''</ref> While living in [[London]], Elizabeth Yeats had been part of the circle of [[William Morris]], and had been inspired by his printing work. Gleeson offered the Yeats sisters her large house in Dundrum, in which a crafts group providing training and work for young women, in the fields of bookbinding, printing, weaving, and embroidery, could live and work.<ref name=pgil>[http://www.ricorso.net/rx/az-data/authors/y/Yeats_E/life.htm Elizabeth Yeats]</ref><ref>[[Sheila Pim]], 'Dun Emer: The Origins', in ''Irish Arts Review'' (1984-1987), Vol. 2, No. 2 (Summer, 1985), pp. 18-22</ref> Bookbinding workshops were a later addition to the studio.<ref name=ubc>[http://www.library.ubc.ca/spcoll/Colbeck/publishers/cuala.htm Cuala/Dun Emer Press] at ubc.ca</ref> The sisters' cousin [[Ruth Pollexfen]] served as Lily's apprentice in the embroidery section.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE4870b.htm|title=Poole, Ruth Lane (1885 - 1974)|work=The Australian Women's Register|first=Maggie|last=Shapley|year=2013}}</ref>

The Dun Emer studio and press were named after [[Emer]], daughter of Forgall Monach, wife of the hero [[Cú Chulainn|Cúchulainn]] in the [[Ulster Cycle]] of [[Irish mythology]], a figure famous for her artistic skills as well as her beauty.<ref name=pgil/> The title-page device of the Dun Emer Press was designed by [[Elinor Darwin|Elinor Monsell]] and shows Emer standing underneath a tree. Monsell also created the symbol of the [[Abbey Theatre]], [[Dublin]], which depicts [[Medb|Maeve]] with a [[wolf hunting with dogs|wolfhound]].<ref>[http://infoshare1.princeton.edu/rbsc2/ga/unseenhands/printers/yeats.html Elizabeth Corbet Yeats] at princeton.edu</ref> The focus of the Press was on publishing literary work by Irish authors,<ref>[http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/specialcollections/privatepresscd.htm#dun Dun Emer Press] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090525141035/http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/specialcollections/privatepresscd.htm#dun |date=2009-05-25 }} at missouri.edu</ref> and Elizabeth and Lily Yeats's younger brother, the artist [[Jack Butler Yeats]], did much of the illustration work.<ref name=ubc/>

In 1904, the Dun Emer crafts studio was organized into two parts, the [[Dun Emer Guild]] under Gleeson and [[Dun Emer Industries]] under the Yeats sisters.<ref>Sheehy, ''op. cit.'', p. 161</ref><ref>Paul Larmour, 'The Dun Emer Guild', in ''Irish Arts Review'' (1984-1987), Vol. 1, No. 4 (Winter, 1984), pp. 24-28</ref>

The Dun Emer Press produced [[special edition|limited editions]] of books, printed by hand in the manner of William Morris's [[Kelmscott Press]].<ref>Robin Skelton, 'Twentieth-Century Irish Literature and the Private Press Tradition: Dun Emer, Cuala, & Dolmen Presses 1902-1963' in ''The Massachusetts Review'', vol. 5, no. 2 (Winter 1964), pp. 368-377</ref> The texts it published were written or selected by W. B. Yeats,<ref>Robert Hogan, ''The Macmillan Dictionary of Irish Literature'' (1980), p. 182</ref> who was the press's literary editor and who also subsidized its operations, which lacked profitability.<ref name=enc>Patrick Maume, ''[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O245-DunEmerPress.html Dun Emer Press]'' (from ''The Oxford Companion to Irish History'', 2007) at encyclopedia.com</ref> In its [[prospectus (book)|prospectus]] issued early in 1903, the press boasted of "a good eighteenth century [[font|fount]] of type" and "paper made of [[linen]] rags and without bleaching chemicals".<ref>David Holdeman, ''Much labouring: the texts and authors of Yeats's first modernist books'' (1997) [https://books.google.com/books?id=8_IT9uUXlIMC&pg=PA32 p. 32] online</ref>

As well as books, the Press also printed broadsheets designed by Jack Yeats, and hand-coloured [[greeting card]]s.<ref name=enc/> In 1908, after the Press had produced eleven literary titles, the different elements of the Dun Emer studio separated completely, with Gleeson retaining the Dun Emer name. The Yeats sisters left Dundrum and took the new name Cuala for their operations, Elizabeth establishing the [[Cuala Press]] at [[Churchtown, Dublin]].<ref>[http://libweb2.princeton.edu/rbsc2/ga/unseenhands/printers/yeats.html Elizabeth Yeats] at princeton.edu (Unseen Hands: Women Printers, Binders and Book Designers)</ref><ref>[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O245-DunEmerPress.html Dun Emer Press] at encyclopedia.com</ref>

==List of books published by the press==
[[File:Dun Emer Press device.jpg|thumb|Device of the Dun Emer Press, designed by Elinor Monsell]]
*W. B. Yeats, ''[[In the Seven Woods|In the Seven Woods: being poems of the Irish heroic age]]'' (The Dun Emer press, 1903) <ref name=florida>[http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/spec/rarebook/cuala/cuala.htm DUN EMER & CUALA PRESS] at uflib.ufl.edu ([[University of Florida]] web site)</ref><ref name=miller>Liam Miller, ''The Dun Emer Press'' (New York: The Typophiles, 1974)</ref>
*[[George William Russell]], ''The Nuts of Knowledge, lyrical poems old and new'' (The Dun Emer press, 1903)<ref name=florida/><ref name=miller/>
*[[Douglas Hyde]], ''The Love Songs of Connacht, being the fourth chapter of the songs of Connacht, collected and translated by Douglas Hyde'' (Dun Emer press, 1904)<ref name=florida/><ref name=miller/>
*W. B. Yeats, ''Stories of Red Hanrahan'' (The Dun Emer press, 1904)<ref name=florida/><ref name=miller/>
*[[Lionel Johnson|Lionel Pigot Johnson]], ''Twenty one poems written by Lionel Johnson, selected by William Butler Yeats'' (The Dun Emer Press, 1904)<ref name=florida/><ref name=miller/>
*[[William Kirkpatrick Magee]], ''Some Essays and Passages by John Eglinton, selected by William Butler Yeats'' (Dun Emer Press, 1905)<ref name=florida/><ref name=miller/>
*[[William Allingham]], ''Sixteen poems, by William Allingham, Selected by William Butler Yeats'' (The Dun Emer press, 1905)<ref name=florida/><ref name=miller/>
*[[Augusta, Lady Gregory|Lady Gregory]], ''A Book of Saints and Wonders put down here by Lady Gregory according to the old writings and memory of the people of Ireland'' (The Dun Emer Press, 1906)<ref name=florida/><ref name=miller/>
*George William Russell, ''By Still Waters; lyrical poems old and new by A. E.'' (The Dun Emer Press, 1906)<ref name=florida/><ref name=miller/>
*[[Katharine Tynan]], ''Twenty one poems; selected by W. B. Yeats'' (Dun Emer press, 1907)<ref name=florida/><ref name=miller/>
*W. B. Yeats, ''Discoveries; a volume of essays by William Butler Yeats'' (Dun Emer press, 1907)<ref name=florida/><ref name=miller/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://archive.org/search.php?query=publisher%3A%22Dun%20Emer%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Dun%20Emer%22%20OR%20%20title%3A%22Dun%20Emer%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Dun%20Emer%22 Dun Emer Press publications] at [[Internet Archive]] (scanned books original editions)
*[http://digitalcommons.colby.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1336&context=cq Fifty Years of the Cuala Press by Ernest C. Mariner] Colby Library Quarterly, series 3, no.11, August 1953, p.&nbsp;171-183.

{{W. B. Yeats|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Arts and Crafts movement]]
[[Category:Small press publishing companies]]
[[Category:Publishing companies established in 1902]]
[[Category:Private press movement]]
[[Category:Companies based in Dublin (city)]]
[[Category:Publishing companies of Ireland]]