This past week, I traveled to the
West Cork Literary Festival in Bantry, Ireland,
to read from my work and participate in the official launch for the
2011 Fish Anthology. . .
but more about that in an upcoming post!
*****
The first part of my trip was spent in
Dublin,
arguably
The Center of the (English-Speaking) Literary Universe!
A tall claim? Here is some evidence:
At the Dublin Writers Museum, the following literary treasures were on display:- An 1804 edition of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels,
then known as Travels Into Several Remote nations of the World, by Lemuel Gulliver
- A private 1920 printing of W. B. Yeats' "Easter, 1916", one of only 25 copies
- A signed 1930 copy of James Joyce's Ulysses
- A first US Edition (933) of George Bernard Shaw's
The Adventures of a Black Girl in Her Search for God, banned in Ireland
- Opening Night Programs from Oscar Wilde's Lady Windemere's Fan and An Ideal Husband, Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars,
and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot
- Samuel Beckett's telephone (with built-in mute button!)
- And my single favorite item in the collection, a letter to G.B. Shaw,
requesting an autograph to be auctioned for charity, signed
"Please do not crush me utterly, Yours Truly, WL Kerby",
which Shaw returned to the sender, inscribed,
"Sorry to crush you; but I never autograph books or anything for sale. G. Bernard Shaw"
A hand-written manuscript by W.B. Yeats, in the National Library of Ireland.
Yeats' Nobel Prize citation, in the National Library of Ireland.
Statue of James Joyce, near The Spire on O'Connell Street
The James Joyce Bridge
The graves of Jonathan Swift and "Stella", in St. Patrick's Cathedral
Statue of Oscar Wilde, in Merrion Square
Oscar Wilde quotes (and an unintentional self-portrait)
Oscar Wilde's childhood home, opposite Merrion Square
Trinity College, where most of the aforementioned Dublin authors taught or were educated
Poet's Corner at The Bachelor Inn
Irish Literary Inspiration, Part One: The Guinness Factory
Irish Literary Inspiration, Part Two: The Old Jameson's Distillery
Irish Literary Inspiration, Part Three. . .(All photos in this posting by Richard Scarsbrook, 2011)
