[YEATS, W. B.]. The Tower. London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1928.
First UK edition, first impression. Cloth-bound. Hardcover. Octavo (200 x 130 x 15 mm.). Pp. vi, 110, [2 - advertisements at rear]. Bound in publisher's original green cloth, titles and pictorial decoration to spine and front cover in gilt, fore and bottom edges untrimmed. Supplied with the original unclipped dust jacket which echoes the cover design by T. Sturge Moore and has the 6/- publisher's printed price present on the front flap. Condition: NEAR FINE. The book itself is immaculate; the dust jacket has a very small piece missing at the top-front edge and shows a little spotting. Without previous ownership markings. A wonderful example and scarce thus.
Notes: The first edition of what is generally accepted to be Yeats's single most important collection. The Tower includes many of Yeats's greatest and most enduring poems, including "Sailing to Byzantium", "Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen", "Leda and the Swan", and "Among School Children". Allan Wade notes that a first edition of 2,000 copies was published 14 February 1928. A second impression was required the following month and a third impression the following year. Wade 158.
