Independent Spirit: Essays

Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1996. 1st Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. Xv, 588 Pp. White And Gray Boards. First Printing. A Collection Of Earlier Essays First Published In Ireland. Fine In Fine Dust Jacket Priced $35.00. Per Wikipedia, Hubert Marshal Butler (1900 - 1991) Was An Irish Essayist Who Wrote On A Wide Range Of Topics, From Local History And Archeology To The Political And Religious Affairs Of Eastern Europe Before And During World War Ii. He Also Traveled To Nazi Austria On His Own Initiative And At His Own Expense And Helped Save Jews From Being Sent To Concentration Camps. Butler Sought To Encourage Understanding Of Irish Social And Political History Through Study Of The Land, The People And The Primary Source Materials. He Was A Co-Reviver Of The Kilkenny Archaeological Society And Through It Promoted Catholic-Protestant Reconciliation. Always Stylish And Subtle, His Writing Used Local Events As Parables For The Politics And Pressures That Accompanied The Emergence Of The Irish State. His Book Ten Thousand Saints Was A Virtuoso Performance, Concluding With A Theory That The Apparently Absurd Legends Of Irish Prehistory And Theology Could Provide Evidence Of The Migration Of Iron-Age Tribes Around Europe. He Illustrated The Point By Reference To Local History And Scholarship. Having Argued That The Saints Of Ireland Were Disguised Personifications Of The Tribes And Political Factions Of Iron-Age Ireland, He Went On To Suggest That The Old Testament Could Be The Same For Jewish Prehistory. After Giving A Broadcast Talk In 1947 About Yugoslavia He Was Publicly Criticised For Failing To Mention The Alleged Suffering Of Catholics Under Josip Broz Tito's Regime. He Responded By Trying To Draw Attention To Another Matter He Had Avoided In His Radio Talk, And Which He Saw As A Greater Scandal: The Involvement Of Catholic Clergy With The Ustasa, A Nazi-Installed Puppet Regime That Had Waged A Genocidal Crusade Against Non-Catholics In Part Of Yugoslavia During World War Ii. Butler's Efforts In This Respect Earned Him Notoriety And Public Opprobrium In Clerical Ireland To The Extent That He Felt Obliged To Leave The Archaeological Society He Had Played A Big Part In Reviving. Butler Was A Keen Market Gardener As Well As A Writer And His Circle Of Friends Included The Mary Poppins Creator Pamela Travers, The Journalist Claud Cockburn, And The Poet Padraic Colum. He Believed Strongly In The Importance Of The Family And, As Well As Playing An Active Role In Keeping His Own Extended Family In Touch, He Was The Founder Of The Butler Society. He Is Buried Five Miles From The Family Home At St. Peter's Church, Ennisnag, Kilkenny. The Kilkenny Art Gallery Society's Butler Gallery Was Named In Honour Of Hubert And Peggy.