LYRICS by O'Connell, Daniel - 1881

San Francisco: A.L. Bancroft and Company, 1881. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Warmly inscribed by O'Connell on the Contents page. A collection of poetry "graced by an Irish sense of love and passing beauty" (Kevin Starr, Americans and the California Dream). Born in County Clare, O'Connell (1849-99) embarked on a career as a professor and journalist in San Francisco after serving in the Royal Navy. He worked for a number of Bay Area periodicals and at various times, edited the Morning Herald, the San Francisco Times, the Bulletin, the Chronicle, the Wasp, the Bohemian, and the Portico. His best work includes "The Thrust in Tierce," a short story written for the Overland Monthly, and a yearly Christmas piece, "quaint, grotesque or poetical," usually describing the serio-comic antics of would-be San Francisco aristocrats with little claim to fame. In 1872 with a group of other Chronicle newspaper staffers, O'Connell helped form the Bohemian Club, and was among the most active early members, earning the nicknames "Prince of the Club" and "The Rightful King of Munster." He was elected honorary life member of the Bohemian Club in the late 1890s and was also made club historian. Octavo. Original brown cloth binding, with gilt titles. Light foxing along the edges. Some minor staining to the front board, with a tiny nick to the fore-edge; otherwise very good.