Under a Colored Cap

London: Macmillan. Very Good/Good. 1963. First Edition. Hard Cover. 8vo Dust jacket unclipped, now in clear protective sleeve, slight wear to edges, closed tears. Red cloth boards with bright gilt titling on spine. No ownership marks. viii. 177 pages clean and tight. SEAN O'CASEY's collection of colored caps (he prefers the American spelling) has come to him from friends and admirers in many different countries, and has given him a symbol for the gay, free, intrepid life and outlook which he defends in several of the papers included in this volume. He has little sympathy with those modern writers who are shut away by their own grudges and grievances from the brightness and variety of the real world and the courage and humor of its ordinary people. Anyone who knows Mr O'Casey's work will be well aware that this is not because he has never seen the darker side of things. Indeed, the book begins with a tragic memory of a dying boy in Dublin who could never join his friends in their street games but kept their ' army ' richly supplied with badges and adornments in colored paper. Later years, too, have brought him his share of losses and sorrows - there is a profoundly moving record here of the keenest of these, the death from leukaemia of a well-loved son whose life was just opening out before him. Among the other longer papers are some typically combative discussions of orthodox beliefs and the myths and mysteries behind them, while contemporary ` Culture, Inc.' and criticisms of a recent production of Purple Dust come in for some very candid and pungent comments. Altogether, with a sprightly song and a few verses for good measure, the reader is assured of some rewarding hours in the company of `The Green Crow', a pen-name which the author adds to his title-page because it is so well known in the United States. .