Dun Emer Press

Dun Emer Press, established 1902 by Elizabeth ( ‘Lolly’) Yeats (1868–1940) as part of Dun Emer Industries, a craft industries partnership she had founded with Evelyn Gleeson and Susan ( ‘Lily’) Yeats (1866–1949). The Press produced elegant hand‐printed limited editions of texts chosen (and often written) by their brother W. B. Yeats, its literary editor. The Press also produced hand‐coloured greeting cards and broadsheets designed by Jack B. Yeats. In 1908, having produced eleven titles, the sisters left Dun Emer and took the new name ‘Cuala’. The Cuala Press printed 77 titles between 1908 and 1946, including many W. B. Yeats first editions. Cuala prints were produced from 1940 by George Yeats, the poet's widow, and book production resumed 1969–78. Despite persistent tensions between the sisters and between Lolly and W. B. Yeats (who subsidized its financially precarious operations), the Press was a significant product of the literary revival and a landmark in Irish art printing.

Patrick Maume