Lavin, Mary (1912–1996) ; Dunsany, Lord (1878–1957) – Preface

Tales from Bective Bridge [Irish Literature, James Tait Black Prize Winner]

London: Michael Joseph, 1942. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover with Dust Jacket.

Mary Lavin’s debut collection of short stories, winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1943, introduced by Lord Dunsany and widely recognized as the work that established her literary reputation.

Set in the rural midlands of Ireland near Bective Abbey, these stories depict domestic tension, moral restraint, and emotional fracture with a quiet precision that would become Lavin’s defining signature and secure her place in modern Irish fiction.

KEY FEATURES
+++ Visuals: Plain cloth binding with publisher’s device stamped in blue; original dust jacket present.
+++ Binding: Publisher’s cloth boards, modest age-fading; housed in a protective mylar sleeve.
+++ Content: Ten short stories depicting rural Irish life, emotional restraint, family tension, and social fracture; winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1943.
+++ Associated Names: Preface by Lord Dunsany, instrumental in the book’s publication and early reception.

CONDITION: Good/Poor -- The bindings are tight and square. Text is clean with light, even age-toning. Moderate shelf handling wear and modest cloth fading. One interior page was dog-eared. The dust jacket is heavily age-toned, chipped, and lacking much of the spine, now held protectively in a clear mylar sleeve.
+++ Imprint: First Edition, Michael Joseph, London; published May 1942.
+++ Specs: 8 inches tall; xiii, [1], 3–220, [1] pages.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Mary Lavin emerged during the Second World War as a quietly radical figure in Irish letters, reworking the established Irish short story tradition toward psychological realism and domestic tension rather than overt nationalism or folklore. Though American-born, her formative years in Ireland shaped a perspective both insider and observer, allowing her to portray rural communities with emotional precision rather than sentimentality.

Tales from Bective Bridge is her foundational work, establishing her literary reputation and earning the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1943. The collection’s restrained style, Chekhovian attention to small moral gestures, and unresolved emotional endings influenced later Irish writers including William Trevor, who praised its refusal of neat conclusions or literary slickness.

SUBJECTS: Irish Short Stories, Rural Ireland, Irish Women Writers, James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Lord Dunsany, 20th Century Irish Literature

Item #21528

Price: $85.00