Colby Quarterly Colby Quarterly

Volume 4 Issue 2 May Article 3

May 1955

George William Russell ("AE") and the Colby Collection George William Russell ("AE") and the Colby Collection

Carlin T. Kindilien

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Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Colby Library Quarterly, series 4, no.2, May 1955, p.21-24

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GEORGE RUSSELL

1867- 1935

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Colby Library QuarterlySeries IV May I 955 No~ 2

GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL ("AE")AND THE COLBY COLLECTION

By CARLIN T. KINDILIEN

W HEN George W. Russell died on July 17, 1935, a worldalready depressed by economic tragedy and the

threat of war took notice of the passing of one of the mostremarkable personalities of the modern world. The deanof Irish letters, George W. Russell, was be.st known in theUnited States as AE,'the Irish poet; but the big man with.the genial eyes and the handsome beard was also a painterwho had seen the visions that must have been Blake's, aphilosopher who had probed with the sages of the Eastfor a mystical faith, an economist who was a leader in theIrish agrarian movement, an editor of one of the uniquemagazines of the century-a man who was many things tomany friends but'never to the neglect of the developmentof his own character and soul. To know the totality ofGeorge Russell's life and work is to know the rich possibil.;.ities of the happy and useful life which is open to everyman but which is realized only by the few who have a gen-'ius for living.

A new generation that would know the genius of AE is·rightly sent to his works, which suggest:his thought, and tohis friends' reminiscences, which suggest his character~

This special issue of the COLBY LIBRARY QUARTERLY will;,it is hoped, stimulate just such an interest in AE. In thisintroduction there is need only for a brief reyiew of hislife and an account of AE's place among the Colby col;.lections. ' :,

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22 Colby Library QuarterlyBorn in Lurgan, County Armagh, on April 10, 1867,

George Russell came of poor parents. He was educated inthe local schools and at the age of ten moved with his fam­ily to Dublin where he became a pupil at RathminesSchool and where he was later employed as a clerk in abusiness house. To escape the monotony of his work, heattended painting classes at the Metropolitan School ofArt, and there began his lifelong friendship with WilliamButler Yeats. His interest in mysticism brought him intothe inner circle of a group of young writers-C,harles John­son, John Eglintori, Charles Weekes, and Yeats-whoformed a '}'heosophical Society. While contributing to themagazine published by this society, Russell attracted atten­tion locally and acquired the pseudonym "AE" underwhich he was to achieve international fame. (A printer'sdifficulty in deciphering the word "Aeon," with which Rus­sell had signed an article for the theosophical journal, andwhich had been printed "AE-?," suggested the pen­narne.). In 1894 Charles Weekes persuaded AE to collect someof his verse, and a small volume was published in Dublinunder the title Homeward: Songs by the Way. This littlebook, the first of several volumes of verse AE was to pub­lish during his lifetime, was an immediate success. At aboutthe same time he wrote a series of prose pamphlets deal­ing with the literary and spiritual ideals which he believedmight guide a sick Ireland. These pamphlets brought AEto the notice of Sir Horace Plunkett, and ultimately intoan active role in the Irish Agricultural Organizatio~Soci­ety. He made the magazine of this Society, the Irish Home­stead-of which he remained editor from 1906 until itsamalgamation with the Irish Statesman in 1923-a uniqueperiodical more appreciated, perhaps, by Irish and Eng­lish intellectuals than by Irish farmers. AE served as edi­tor of the Irish Stat.esman until it ceased publication in1930 and expressed ,his economic beliefs in various writ­ings, most notably Co-operation and Society (1912) and

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Colby Library Quarterly 23The National Being (1916), his most influential and wide­ly read work. Ever on the side of the distressed and themistreated, AE came into prominence during the Dublinlabor disputes in 1913 and again during the Irish Conven­tion of 1917. On each of his three visits to the United States,AE preached the doctrine that was closest to his heart­the return to the soil, to the rural life. His religious phi­losophy was expressed most fully in The Candle oj Vision(1918) and his political idealism in two fantasies, The In­terpreters (1922) and The Avatars (1933).

What aspect of AE's mind and work can one emphasizeto reveal the man? His economic theorizing? His religiousmysticism? His artistic sensitivity which overflowed inpainting, poetry, and the drama? Primarily AE will beremembered for the man who was all these things com­bined-and something more. The man who died atBournemouth, England, in 1935 passed easily into theworld which had long been as real to hiln as the one inwhich he had lived for nearly seventy years.

T HE story of AE's place in the Colby Library beginswith his first volume of verse: Homeward: Songs by the

Way. The book was p,ublished in Dublin by Whaley inJune, 1894, and in January of the following year a secondedition was published. A copy of this second edition cameinto the hands of Thomas Bird Mosher who only a fewyears previously had set up his publishing business inPortland, Maine. With the second Dublin edition ofHomeward in hand, Mosher set about issuing the firstAmerican edition of these poems. Shortly before this time,Mosher had received a letter from a student at PurdueUniversity in Indiana. This student had been taking anart course in which he had done some experimental let­tering and book-designing; and having learned of Mosher'slittle publications, the Purdue student-whose name wasBruce Rogers (a name destined to become famous as oneof the most distinguished book-designers in American his-

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24 Colby Library Quarterlytory)-sent Mosher some exanlples of his work. The resultwas that Mosher hired young Rogers to design the Port­land (1895) edition of AE's Homeward: Songs by the Way)and in this way this book, with its original headbands anddecorations, became the first book ever designed by BruceRogers. When Edward F. Stevens initiated the Book ArtsCollection in the Colby College Library, Mosher's edi­tion of AE's poems was among the first books presented.AE's I-Iomeward has thus long held an honored place onthe shelves of the Colby College Library. In time it wasjoined there by copies of the two Dublin editions.

Now, thanks to the benefaction of Mr. James A. Healy,of New York and Portland, these AE items find themselvessurrounded by a host of AE material. Over the last twodecades Mr. Healy has devoted himself to the task of build­ing an outstanding collection of AE's work. Consisting offirst editions-many inscribed and autographed-of near­ly all of AE's poetry and prose writings, together with con­siderable manuscript material and over one hundred let­ters in AE's holograph, this collection is without questionthe most comprehensive library of AE material on thisside of the Atlantic and equaled by few, if any, in Irelanditself. This special issue of the COLBY LIBRARY QUARTERLYwill clearly reveal the extent of Mr. Healy's devotion toAE, and the opportunity his collection now offers toscholars.

oQooQooQo

AN ANGELIC ANARCHIST

By OLIVER ST. JOHN GOGARTy1

T HERE was a tinle when men felt that over and abovepoetry, painting and music there were deeds that were

better worth the doing, a time when the artist was not re­garded as a complete human being, a time when, in fact,

1 Dr. Gogarty has kindly given the COLBY LIBRARY QUARTERLY permission touse an excerpt from a chapter on AE in his forthcoming volume, The NineWorthies.

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