The Irish Book in the Twentieth Century

The Irish Book in the Twentieth Century examines Ireland’s publishing history in the last century. This is a work of ‘book history’, a new and important interdisciplinary approach which aims to reorient literary and historical interpretations by looking at the diverse and often surprising roles which publishers, printers, readers, governments and censors can play in the creation of textual culture. A collection of twelve essays by scholars in Irish studies, The Irish Book in the Twentieth Century covers a range of topics including: the Irish Arts and Crafts book in the 1900s (Nicola Gordon Bowe); Innovation and Reception in Irish Language Publishing in the 1900s (Niall O Ciosain); Revising Irish Censorship (W. J. McCormack); Beckett’s Early Career (John Pilling); Derek Mahon’s Literary Archive (Steve Enniss); and Seamus Heaney’s Sweeney’s Flight (Colleen McKenna). The first book to examine Ireland’s bibliographical heritage in the twentieth century, The Irish Book in the Twentieth Century will appeal to any reader with general or specific interests in Ireland’s cultural and literary history through a century which has seen two literary revivals, the Literary Revival of the 1900s, and the ‘Northern Revival’ of more recent decades.