In February 1904, Pamela Colman Smith (1878-1951) wrote to Green Sheaf contributor and American children’s magazine editor Alfred Bigelow Paine (1861-1937), hinting at the challenges she faced in preparing her magazine for monthly circulation. Although she had announced in the previous issue that The Green Sheaf would convert to a quarterly publication after its first series was completed (Supplement Advertisements), she was already revising this plan, telling Paine that the magazine “will probably go on semi annually because there are many other things to do more important.” Among the activities taking time and attention from The Green Sheaf, she explained, were her performances of West Indian Annancy stories in the character of “Gelukiezanger,” which—unlike her magazine—she hoped “in time to make some money by.” Signalling the magazine’s imminent demise, she concluded: “It is most discouraging to go on working at it” when it “does not pay” (qtd in Kaplan 55). The tenth number of The Green Sheaf confirms its editor’s waning enthusiasm: its eight pages contain a mere three poems, a single prose piece, three illustrations, and a recycled textual ornament. Rather than coordinating chroma across the number, Smith uses a unique palette for each of the hand-coloured images, suggesting that the diverse contents had not been selected in accordance with a unifying theme (fig. 1). Nevertheless, the Academy and Literature praised the tenth number of The Green Sheaf as a “refreshing publication, as its name implies.” The “literary contents are quaint and sometimes beautiful,” the reviewer noted, “but the chiefest charm lies in the hand-coloured prints, which are highly-decorative, simple in treatment, and of a pleasant old-world flavour” (qtd in Kaplan 54).

Smith bookends the tenth issue with full-page, hand-coloured illustrations by Irish artists. The number opens with first-time contributor Jack B. Yeats (1871-1957) and closes with Cecil French (1879-1953), whose work had thus far appeared each month of The Green Sheaf’s print run. Jack was the younger brother of William (1865-1939), Lily (1866-1949), and Elizabeth (1868-1940) Yeats, all active in the Irish Revival movement, and all collaborators, in various ways, with Pamela Colman Smith. In 1902, the Yeats sisters co-founded the Dun Emer Guild with Evelyn Gleeson (1855-1944), where a group of women—including Smith herself—worked to renew the arts-and-crafts tradition in Ireland. That same year, Smith collaborated with Jack Yeats to co-edit, illustrate, and hand-colour the first twelve numbers of A Broad Sheet. In 1903, she left her colleague to continue on his own when she launched The Green Sheaf with William’s input and encouragement (see General Introduction). In addition to an arts-and-crafts approach to production, A Broad Sheet and The Green Sheaf share an interest in local-colour literature, with common contributors including Lady Augusta Gregory (1852-1932), A.E. (aka George Russell, 1867-1935), John Masefield (1878-1967), and Frederick York Powell (1850-1904). Elkin Mathews (1851-1921), whose publishing lists were always advertised in The Green Sheaf’s back pages, sold both magazines at his premises on Vigo Street. Jack Yeats’s illustration for The Green Sheaf is accompanied by a scrap of song from a traditional Irish ritual held on St. Stephen’s Day (December 26), known locally as Hunt the Wren Day (Untitled 2). The image shows a troop of young boys—sometimes called wren boys— parading through the snowy street, brandishing a decorated tree (fig. 2). The winter scene is beautifully captured in the black lines and white spaces of the drawing; pink and red tints, offset with blue, convey the chill quality of light at the end of the year.

The issue’s final image, French’s “The Fountain of Faithful Lovers,” contrasts Yeats’s opening scene of childhood with a symbolic scene representing adult sexual love. Tinted in greens, browns, and reds, the full-page illustration shows a gigantic winged figure leaning on a cliff, looking down on a pair of naked androgynous figures, who kneel at the fountain’s brink to take its waters (fig. 3). The foliage, twisting branches, and roots of a large tree encircle the lovers and form a screen for the fountain and cliff; a ring of seven stars in the upper left casts a symbolic aura over the scene. The iconography recalls “The Wood Nymph,” French’s illustration for The Green Sheaf No. 8, and may have been among the “mystic dreamland” images he showed at the Baillie Art Gallery the previous November, in an exhibition featuring Pamela Colman Smith’s work as well as his own (“Galleries and Ateliers,” 6.) Its placement as the final item in this number of The Green Sheaf gives French’s image the significance of the final view. Smith’s choice to place two brief love lyrics, separated by a pair of red roses with green leaves, on the facing page, works both visually and thematically with French’s “Fountain of Faithful Lovers.” Written by Ernest Radford (1857-1919), who was the first secretary of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society and a member of the Rhymer’s Club, “Lines to the Evening Star” and “Rondelet” praise a beloved woman—figured as a heavenly light—whose creative powers may allude to those of his wife, poet Dollie Radford (1858-1920), who published poetry in The Yellow Book.

The November 1903 exhibition of “Dreams and Visions” at John Baillie’s (1868-1926) Gallery in Prince’s Terrace brought a new contributor to the tenth number of The Green Sheaf: Frederick York Powell (1850-1904), who wrote the Introduction to the catalogue of Smith’s artwork for this event. As Leslie Howsam writes in her Y90s biography of Powell, the Regius Professor of History at Oxford and President of the Folklore Society was deeply embedded in the fin-de-siècle little magazine network (Howsam, np). A resident of the Bedford Park community in suburban London, Powell was a friend and neighbour of the artistic Yeats family and publisher Elkin Mathews. On one memorable occasion, he designed the logo for the publisher’s “Vigo Cabinet Series” while John Yeats Sr. (1839-1922) sketched his portrait (ibid). A skilled translator known for his expertise in medieval history and literature, Powell “Englished” (i.e., translated) “The Dawn Song by Gerald of Bornelh” for The Green Sheaf. Also known as Giraut de Bornelh (c. 1138-1215), the medieval French poet was a famed troubadour. Powell’s translation renders a poetic dialogue between a troubadour dubbed “Loquitur Vigilator” (Talking Watcher) and a “Respondit Amator” (Responding Lover). The latter dallies with his lady love, resisting both the arrival of the dawn and the warnings of his friend in order to extend his stay with her.

The longest prose piece in the number, “The Garden,” is supplied by the pseudonymous “G.F.” and illustrated with a half-page coloured image by Smith (fig. 4). Meeting the Green Sheaf’s promise to include “tales… of the sea” (Smith, Front Cover), “The Garden” recounts a story told in the Shetland Islands about a sea captain who sails to the magnetic north. Drawing on a myth that places Paradise near the pole, where ice and snow give way to a beautiful garden, the story has the captain arrive at the gates of immortality, where he glimpses the Tree of Life behind the walls. However, he does not return to the ship. As the three crew members dispatched to find him discover, the adventurer dies on the threshold, thwarted in his quest. The cautionary tale promises that although the Tree is “inaccessible in the present scheme of things,” it will continue to guide “the world until the Great Time comes when we may see it and be immortal” (G.F. 5). Smith’s luridly coloured illustration is suitably apocalyptic (fig. 4). A monumental figure brandishing a sword emerges from the flames in front of the wall, protecting the Garden from intruders who come before their time. In the extreme foreground, the three crew members discover the dead body of their errant captain and flee the scene in terror. In a copy of The Green Sheaf No. 10 from John Masefield’s private library now held in McMaster University Special Collections, the hand-coloured image appears even more lurid than it does in the University of Delaware Library copy digitized on Yellow Nineties 2.0. In Masefield’s copy, the robed figure emerges from a bed of bright red fire and is crowned in a headdress of red flames, with red lines dripping down its garments and a red accent on the pommel of its sword.

As usual, Smith uses the back page of her magazine to advertise the exhibitions and classes offered at John Baillie’s Art Gallery and a select list of titles published by Elkin Mathews (Advertisements, 8). She also offers Green Sheaf subscribers the opportunity to purchase her hand-coloured prints of actress Ellen Terry (1847-1928) in various roles. One of these, “Portia hurrying to the Railway Station,” depicts the actress in street clothes rather than Shakespearean costume. This distinctive image may have originated in a series of drawings Smith published in 1901 in The Kensington, a short-lived monthly of art, music, and literature, with a regular feature on “The Drama” by her friend Christopher St. John (aka Christabel Marshall, 1871-1960). St. John regularly devoted some of her column to news of the Lyceum Theatre and its tours, with special attention given to Terry, the mother of her lover, Edith Craig (1869-1947). Smith was not only a friend of all three women; she also toured with Terry’s theatre troupe in 1900, publishing an illustrated account of this experience for The Kensington the following year. Introduced with a full-length portrait of Terry at the station, “Our Adventures”—a two-page comic-book style tale —humorously recounts the strolling players’ departure by train from London, their derailment, and their rescue (Smith, “Strolling Players”). “Portia hurrying to the Railway Station” is in line with Smith’s depiction of the traveling actors in The Kensington and may have been produced as part of this project. Despite advertising her souvenir prints of Terry in every issue of The Green Sheaf, with special pricing available for magazine subscribers, Smith may not have sold many prints in this way. Indeed, Smith’s principal clientele may have been friends and associates in her theatrical network. Smallhythe Place in Kent (Terry’s home from 1899) has at least fifteen tinted copies of the “Portia hurrying” print in the Terry-related collection founded by Edith Craig after the death of her mother in 1928 (Smith, “Dame Ellen Terry”).

Smith uses the front cover to announce The Green Sheaf’s manifesto and to promote the next issue, which would introduce two new poets: Yone Noguchi (1875-1947) and Mary Grace Walker (1849-1920). The latter was the wife of Smith’s friend Emery Walker (1851-1933), whose lectures on typography and printed books at the first Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society Exhibition in 1888 initiated the fin-de-siècle’s fine printing revival as well as the little magazine movement. With its beautifully balanced typography and ornament, wide margins, hand-made paper and good black ink, The Green Sheaf is a beautiful example of the art and craft of printing. Smith’s announcement also indicates that frequent contributors Alix Egerton (1870-1932) and Dorothy Priestly Ward (1879-1969) would publish poems in the eleventh number; Ward was to join Smith in providing illustrations as well. Despite the challenges of securing sufficient content for each issue in The Green Sheaf’s final months, Smith was still able to place work by women contributors and to welcome the work of transnational writers.

©2022 Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, FRSC, Emerita Professor of English and Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Digital Humanities, Toronto Metropolitan University.

Works Cited

• Advertisements. The Green Sheaf, No. 10, 1904, p. 8. Green Sheaf Digital Edition, edited by Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, Yellow Nineties 2.0, Toronto Metropolitan University Centre for Digital Humanities, 2022.
  https://1890s.ca/GSV10-ads/

• French, Cecil. “The Fountain of Faithful Lovers.” The Green Sheaf, No. 10, 1904, p. 7. Green Sheaf Digital Edition, edited by Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, Yellow Nineties 2.0, Toronto Metropolitan University Centre for Digital Humanities, 2022.
  https://1890s.ca/GSV10-french-fountain/

• —. “The Wood Nymph.” The Green Sheaf, No. 8, 1903, p 2. Green Sheaf Digital Edition, edited by Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, Yellow Nineties 2.0, Toronto Metropolitan University Centre for Digital Humanities, 2022.
  https://1890s.ca/GSV8-french-woodnymph/

• “The Galleries and Ateliers,” The Daily Mirrors, 18 November, 1903, p. 6.

• G.F. “The Garden,” illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith. The Green Sheaf, No. 10, 1904, pp. 4-5. Green Sheaf Digital Edition, edited by Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, Yellow Nineties 2.0, Toronto Metropolitan University Centre for Digital Humanities, 2022.
  https://1890s.ca/GSV10-gf-garden/

• Howsam, Leslie. “Frederick York Powell (1850-1904),” Y90s Biographies. Yellow Nineties 2.0. edited by Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, Toronto Metropolitan University Centre for Digital Humanities, 2021,
  https://1890s.ca/powell_bio/

• Kaplan, Stuart R, with Mary K. Greer, Elizabeth Foley O’Connor, and Melinda Boyd Parsons. Pamela Colman Smith: The Untold Story. U.S. Games Systems, 2018.

• Powell, Frederick York, trans. “The Dawn Song by Gerald of Bornelh.” The Green Sheaf, No. 10, 1904, p. 3. Green Sheaf Digital Edition, edited by Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, Yellow Nineties 2.0, Toronto Metropolitan University Centre for Digital Humanities, 2022.
  https://1890s.ca/GSV10-bornelh-dawn-song/

• Radford, Ernest. “Lines to the Evening Star” and “Rondelet,” decorated by Pamela Colman Smith. The Green Sheaf, No. 10, 1904, p. 6. Green Sheaf Digital Edition, edited by Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, Yellow Nineties 2.0, Toronto Metropolitan University Centre for Digital Humanities, 2022.
  https://1890s.ca/GSV10-radford-evening-star/

• —. “Rondelet,” decorated by Pamela Colman Smith. The Green Sheaf, No. 10, 1904, p. 6. Green Sheaf Digital Edition, edited by Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, Yellow Nineties 2.0, Toronto Metropolitan University Centre for Digital Humanities, 2022.
  https://1890s.ca/GSV10-radford-rondelet/

• Smith, Pamela Colman. “Dame Ellen Terry (1847-1928)—Portia hurrying to the Station,” 1900. Smallhythe Place Collection, NT 1118405.10.
  https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/1118405.10

• —. Front Cover for The Green Sheaf, No. 10, 1904, p. [i]. Green Sheaf Digital Edition, edited by Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, Yellow Nineties 2.0, Toronto Metropolitan University Centre for Digital Humanities, 2022.
  https://1890s.ca/GSV10-smith-front-cover/

• —. Illustration for “The Garden,” by G.F. The Green Sheaf, No. 10, 1904, p. 5. Green Sheaf Digital Edition, edited by Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, Yellow Nineties 2.0, Toronto Metropolitan University Centre for Digital Humanities, 2022.
  https://1890s.ca/GSV10-smith-garden/

• —. “Strolling Players: A Series of Three Plates.” The Kensington, vol. 1, no. 3, 1901, np; tipped in after p. 96.

• Supplemental Advertisements for the Supplement (p. [iv]) to The Green Sheaf, No. 9, 1904. Green Sheaf Digital Edition, edited by Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, Yellow Nineties 2.0, Toronto Metropolitan University Centre for Digital Humanities, 2022.
  https://1890s.ca/GSV9-supplement-ads/

• Yeats, Jack B. Illustration for Untitled [“The wren! The wren!”], traditional song adapted by Jack B. Yeats. The Green Sheaf, No. 10, 1904, p. 2. Green Sheaf Digital Edition, edited by Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, Yellow Nineties 2.0, Toronto Metropolitan University Centre for Digital Humanities, 2022.
  https://1890s.ca/GSV10-yeats-wren-text/