Maurice O'Sullivan; Moya Llewelyn Davies [translator]; George Thomson [translator] — Twenty Years a-Growing

London, Chatto & Windus, 1933. First edition. Cloth. The first UK edition of this autobiography from Irish author Maurice O'Sullivan, with unique memoirs from his time living on the Great Blasket Island. First UK edition. The autobiography of Muiris Ó Súilleabháin, anglicised as Maurice O'Sullivan, an Irish author best remembered for this Irish language memoir of growing up on the Great Blasket Island and in Dingle, County Kerry, off the western coast of Ireland. As one of the last areas of Ireland in which the Irish language and culture had continued unchanged, the Great Blasket Island was a place of enormous interest to those seeking traditional Irish narratives. O'Sullivan was persuaded to write his memoirs by George Thomson, who helped to translate this work into English. Translated by Moya Llewelyn Davies, an Irish Republican activist during the Irish War of Independence and a Gaelic scholar, and George Derwent Thomson, a British classical scholar, Marxist philosopher, and scholar of the Irish language. In the original full green cloth binding. Externally, very smart with fading to the extremities and the odd mark to the cloth. Original price-clipped dust wrapper is sound with sunning to the spine and panel edges with the odd small mark. Light loss to the head and tail of the spine with the odd small closed tear to the extremities. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are very bright with minor age toning to the extremities. The odd small mark to the endpapers. Very Good . Ill.: None. Very Good/Good.