This is one of those times when I wished I lived in Dublin rather than Buenos Aires: the National Library of Ireland has an exhibition celebrating the life and works of William Butler Yeats. It looks to be quite an event. It’s billed as the “biggest exhibition devoted to Yeats and his work ever mounted in Ireland.”

Works and Days is the book to accompany the Yeats exhibition: “The focus of the book, brought together by three of the Yeats Exhibition’s curators, is on the life of W.B. Yeats. It presents a succinct account of his works and days, richly illustrated with photographs and reproductions of paintings, manuscripts and books, many drawn from the National Library’s Yeats Collection.”

There is also a DVD with 4 films that “contain rare archive footage and interviews with major artists and many of the great Yeats scholars to provide an illuminating look at four crucial aspects of Yeats’ life and work, as well as also giving viewers an insight into Irish social, cultural and political life from the late 1800s to the 1930s.”

There’s not really much available online from this exhibition but there is a fascinating video discussing Sailing to Byzantium that will delight anyone interested in poetry and the writer’s process. I would like to see more discussions of literature like this on the net.

And, finally, since this is a book design blog, the exhibition offers an e-card that with the cover of the The Tower (1928) designed by T.S. Moore.