The Collected Letters of W. B. Yeats, vol. 1: 1865-1895

by W.B. Yeats, John Kelly

Vividly entertaining and entirely unselfconscious, these early letters of W.B. Yeats reveal the sensibility of a great literary figure. This first volume of Yeats's correspondence contains 350 letters covering the first thirty years of his life, a creative period that saw the publication of his first three books of verse, the first performance of his plays, the beginning of his relationship with Maud Gonne, and his increasing involvement with the Irish nationalist movement. The annotation is lively and detailed and gives the full literary, social, and historical context of the letters. Also included are an introduction, a detailed chronology of the whole of Yeats's life, and a biographical appendix on his principal correspondents and others mentioned in the letters.

548 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and dramatist, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years Yeats served as an Irish Senator for two terms. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, and along with Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn founded the Abbey Theatre, serving as its chief during its early years. In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for what the Nobel Committee described as "inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation." He was the first Irishman so honored. Yeats is generally considered one of the few writers who completed their greatest works after being awarded the Nobel Prize; such works include The Tower (1928) and The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1929).

Yeats was born and educated in Dublin but spent his childhood in County Sligo. He studied poetry in his youth, and from an early age was fascinated by both Irish legends and the occult. Those topics feature in the first phase of his work, which lasted roughly until the turn of the century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and those slow paced and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser and Percy Bysshe Shelley, as well as to the Pre-Raphaelite poets. From 1900, Yeats' poetry grew more physical and realistic. He largely renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual masks, as well as with cyclical theories of life.
--from Wikipedia