Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers RARE BOOK & COLLECTORS SALE 6th & 7th, December 2022

121 Fonsie Mealy’s Est. 1934 a dramatization of his story “In the Valley”which appeared in the U.I. the week before last. With these we hope to do some play or plays in Irish. Not a bad programme, is it? One advantage of having a hall of our own is that we can play what we like in it and that we can play night after night for as long as we can get an audience .. No matter how much rehearsal we have, it is playing before the public and trying to make your work convincing to them that makes the actor .. One thing, we give no shoddy. Yeats and A.E. are men of genius and the other authors are all sincere and have something to say ..’ -- and so on, for a further dozen or so letters. Eventually the Fays were side-lined by the combination of Miss Horniman, Lady Gregory and Yeats, but their artistic legacy left an enduring mark on the Abbey and its style of performance. A fine collection, entirely unpublished, telling the story of the Fays and their part in the rebirth of Irish theatre as it happened, month by month, without benefit of hindsight. It is of particular importance since the story has never been fully told from the Fays’ own point of view (W.G. Fay’s book Merely Players deals mainly with stage management and other technical matters). The letters should certainly be published. €5000 - €7000