HANDWRITTEN IRISH POET JAMES STEPHENS POEM & LETTER 1925 THE RIVALS

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HANDWRITTEN IRISH POET JAMES STEPHENS POEM & LETTER 1925 THE RIVALS:
$375.00

HANDWRITTEN IRISH JAMES STEPHENS POEM & LETTER 1925 THE RIVALS

This sale is for a hand written copy of The Rivals, byJames Stephens, written here in 1925.

Both the poem and the letter are signed by James Stephens.

There is a slight variance in the second stanza from theoriginal published version (Songs fromthe Clay 1915) and I think this one is better.

The letter is addressed C.O Mrs. H.V Moody at 2970 Ellis Avenue. This would be Harriet Brainard Moody. Thefollowing is from an online University of Chicago Library Special Collection ofHarriet Brainard Moody.

Harriet Moody was a teacher, entrepreneur, author and patron to other authors. She established her business, the \"Home Delicacies Association\" in 1890. After the death of her poet and play write husband, William Vaughn Moody, in 1910 she increasingly hosted many authors and intellectuals in her Chicago home. The bulk of the correspondence, however, dates ca. 1914-1930 and is from the writers and poets Harriet Moody befriended. Among the poets are: Witter Bynner, Padraic Colum, Walter de la Mare, Robert Frost, Wilfred Wilson Gibson, Stephen Graham, Amy Lowell, Vachel Lindsay, Edwin Markham, Edgar Lee Masters, John Masefield, Robert Nichols, Yone Noguchi, Lola Ridge, Lennox Robinson, Edwin Arlington Robinson, William Rothenstein, Siegfried Sassoon, Carl Sandburg, James Stephens, Rabindranath Tagore, Ridgely Torrence, Louis Untermeyer, Yvor Winters. Novelists include: Henry B. Fuller, John Galsworthy, Zona Gale, O. E. Rølvaag, Frank Swinnerton, Thornton Wilder, and Francis Brett Young. After the collapse of her business in 1929, Harriet Moody attempted to provide a stable income by reviving an earlier idea for compiling a cookbook; James Stephens suggested that a number of literary essays on food written by her friends, coupled with Harriet\'s recipes would make the book a success. In addition Hendrick Van Loon responded enthusiastically to the suggestion that he illustrate the volume. The book, Mrs. William Vaughn Moody\'s Cookbook, appeared in 1931 sans essays and illustrations for reasons of economy. It was successful but not on the requisite scale.

The note is written to a Mrs Hough. In it, Stephens comments that his wifereminded him that he was to send her a little poem. He had not forgotten butwas very busy. I found information online that William Vaughan Moody, husbandof Harriet, was friends with Emerson Hough, but it seems he may have alreadybeen dead, so good wishes would have been a bit inappropriate.

The note an poem are written on old Cranes Japanese linenwatermarked paper. There is soiling to the reverse side of the letter and asmall stain above the title of the poem, The Rivals (last photo).

The funny thing about this poem is how appropriate it istoday. \"If you are not impressed by me, I will not be impressed byyou.\"

JAMES STEPHENS:

James Stephens (9 February 1880– 26 December 1950) wasan Irish novelist and poet.

A poem bythe Irish writer James Stephens is about wrong emotion of a very ordinary kind.“The Rivals” begins:

I heard a bird at dawn

Singing sweetly on a tree,

That the dew was on the lawn,

And the wind was on the lea;

But I didn’t listen to him,

For he didn’t sing to me.

This bird, of course, stands for much more. People feelfor or against hundreds of things, based on: do they make much of me,make me important? People see someone else as good or not gooddepending on whether that person likes them, praises them.However frequent, this is a fake and foul basis for an emotion. The bird in thepoem is lovely; it is welcoming the world—the dew, the wind. But the speakerdoesn’t feel the bird is worth listening to, because it didn’t make him special:“For he didn’t sing to me.”

One form this false criterion takes is snobbishness. Andevery day there are thousands of emotions—of feelings for or against—that arisefrom snobbishness: “I like this restaurant, or film, or artwork, because it’spraised by the right people and therefore liking it makes me a big shot.Something that doesn’t have a certain cachet, something the liking of whichwon’t bring me prestige, isn’t worth my attention. It leaves me cold. And if Ifind I do like it, I’ll lie to myself and say I don’t; I’ll resent liking it.”

In the Stephens’ final stanza we have another form ofthat fundamental wrongness which is contempt:

I was singing all the time,

Just as prettily as he,

About the dew upon the lawn

And the wind upon the lea;

So I didn’t listen to him

As he sang upon a tree.

This is a melodious description of one of the ugliest states of mind:competition with what’s not yourself; the feeling that putting yourself forwardis at war with liking what’s good in another. That’s the meaning of the poem’stitle, “The Rivals.” If we see our value, our expression, our glory asin rivalry with value, expression, glory elsewhere, we’ll respond to thingsaccordingly, have emotions accordingly.

Emotions based on contempt, wrong emotions, go on allthe time. But it’s a beautiful fact that every person, knowingly or not, isprofoundly ashamed of having unjust emotions. Mr. Siegel once said that thepurpose of life is to have emotions you are proud of. Aesthetic Realism makesthat possible.

Ellen Reiss, AestheticRealism Chairman of Education

IT IS VERY UNCOMMON TO GET A COMPLETE POEM WRITTEN BY AWORLD FAMOUS AUTHOR. MAYBE A LINE AND MAYBE A STANZA, BUT THIS IS THE WHOLETHING AND WOULD LOOK WONDERFUL FRAMED.

Stephens, James, 1882–1950, Irishpoet and fiction writer, b. Dublin.One of the leading figures of theIrish literary renaissance,Stephens is best known for his fanciful andhighly colored prose writings— The Crock of Gold (1912), The Demi- Gods (1914), Irish Fairy Tales (1920), Deirdre (1923),and In the Land of Youth (1924). In these works and others he madevivacious use of Irish legend and folklore. His first volume of poetry, Insurrections,appeared in 1909. Later volumes include Songs from the Clay (1915) and Kingsand the Moon (1938). Possessed of a superb speaking voice, he gave manyrecitations of his poetry and, in later years, lectured on the radio.