Ystoriau Bohemia (Cyfres Y Werin, Rhif 6) [Bohemian Stories (The People’s Series, No. 6)]

xiv, 56pp. In blue cloth-covered boards with gilt titles, motif blind stamped into lower corner (cloth lightly rubbed and rounded at corners and spine ends, spine waxy and faded). Some toning on endpapers, else internally neat, clean, bright and tight. The People’s series was a series of books published in the 1920s. The books were translations into Welsh of classic literary works: the series included translations from Irish and Czechoslovakian authors – two countries which had recently achieved independence – something which was of great interest in Welsh literary circles (and more widely) at the time, as those countries sought to re-establish their cultures and national identities. Bohemian Stories is a selection of Czechoslovakian literature featuring authors such as Vrchlicky, Neruda, and Svatpluk, translated into Welsh (from a German translation) by T H Parry-Williams. There’s a foreword and introduction where the Czech nation is praised and connections drawn with the Welsh national experience. An interesting slice of Welsh history and its literary revivalism. Slim 16mo.