Edmund Leamy

The Golden Spears Edmund Leamy

The Golden Spear
It comes to me as a very welcome piece of news, and yet a piece of news which I have been long expecting, that a special American edition of Edmund Leamy's Irish fairy tales is about to be published. This, then, will be the third issue of the little book. I venture to predict that it will not be the last; and I fancy the American publisher who has had the judgment to take the matter up will soon be rewarded for his enterprise. For I believe the book to be a little classic in its way, and that it will go on making for itself a place in the libraries of those who understand children, and will hold that place permanently.
This is the verdict of competent literary judges. I am spared the necessity of attempting a discussion of the grounds on which so strong an opinion of Leamy's fairy tales is based by the fact that this is already done in Mr. T. P. Gill's Introductory Note. Mr. Gill, though he was, like myself, one of Leamy's intimate friends, is a conscientious critic, and to his analysis not merely of the "Tales," but of that attractive personality which Leamy infused into all he said or wrote I can safely refer the reader. I think no one of taste and judgment who reads these Tales will fail to agree with the view which is expressed in that Note and which I here, with some confidence, venture to reiterate.