W. B. Yeats, 1865–1939 PDF
Preview W. B. Yeats, 1865–1939
W. B. YEATS, 1865-1939 Books by the same Author BISHOP BERKELEY THE LIFE OF GEORGE MOORE THE MOORES OF MOORE HALL HENRY TONKS W. B. YEATS From a charcoal drawing hy john S. Sargent, R.A. pal grave macmillan © Anne Yeats and Michael B. Yeats 1962 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended), or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 33-4 Alfred Place, London WC1E 7DP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1943 (title-page misdated 1942) Second edition 1962 Reprinted 1965 Reissued 1989 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. CIP information for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-0-333-49754-8 ISBN 978-1-349-20309-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-20309-3 PREFATORY NOTE TO THE FIRST EDITION I N the first place I am deeply indebted to Mrs. W. B. Yeats, with whose sanction the biography has been written. She has placed her recollections at my disposal as well as the relevant records, manuscripts and letters in her possession. Next I must acknowledge similar kindnesses on the part of W. B. Yeats' sisters, Lily Yeats and Elizabeth Yeats, and on that of his brother, Jack B. Yeats. My grateful thanks are due to Mr. Jack Grene for helping me to revise the manuscript and for various suggestions, and to Mr. Cecil Salkeld, to Mr. Oliver Edwards and Mr. Monk Gibbon for their advice and assistance in regard to certain chapters ; and among Yeats' friends who have talked and/ or corresponded with me on the subject of his life and work, I should mention especially Madame Gonne MacBride (Maud Gonne) and, after her, the late F. R. Higgins, T. Sturge Moore, Dr. F. P. Sturm, Captain Dermot MacManus, Miss Edith Shackleton, Miss Norah Heald, Sir William Rothenstein, Dr. M. Rossi, Miss Edith Sitwell, Mrs. Stuart (lseult Gonne), General Sir Ian Hamilton, Miss Ethel Mannin, Mrs. Llewelyn Davies and Richard Best. I am under great obligation to the following: Dr. Thomas Bodkin, Mr. G. R. Barnes, Mr. L. A. G. Strong, Dame Edith Lyttelton (the Hon. Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton); to Dr. Bodkin for accounts of Yeats' work as a Senator ; to Mr. Barnes for a description of Yeats' broadcasting ; to Mr. L. A. G. Strong for his picture of Yeats' life at Oxford ; and to Dame Edith Lyttelton for a passage on Yeats and Psychical Research. Letters written by the late Robert Bridges are quoted by permission of his executors ; letters written by the late George Moore, with acknowledgments to Mr. C. D. Medley; letters by John Butler Yeats, with acknowledgments to Jack B. Yeats v W. 'B. Yeats and Miss Lily Yeats. In the case of Yeats' own letters the permission has been given by Mrs. Yeats. In reproducing these I have frequently corrected the spelling. There were certain quite common words which up to the end of his life he always spelt wrong. Various other obligations are acknowledged in the Biblio graphy to be found at the close of the book. J. H. BLACKRATH, KILKENNY May 1942. PUBLISHER'S NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION Joseph Hone's W. B. Yeats was first published on February 12th, 1943, four years after the poet's death. The restrictions on book production in war-time meant that only a limited number of copies could be produced, and this admirable biography went out of print within five months of first publication. No subsequent account of Yeats' life has replaced it. In the twenty-three years since his death there have been a number of critical works of a very high order, but no one since Hone has had such free access to the papers dealing with Yeats' personal life, and the assistance which only Mrs. Yeats could offer. Unhappily the author did not live to prepare the present edition himself, as he died on March 26th, 1959, at the age of seventy-seven. In 1943 Yeats' body still lay at Roquebrune. A short epilogue to this edition therefore describes his subsequent interment at Drumcliff. Some corrections and other changes of less importance have also been made to the text. MACMILLAN & CO. LTD February I 962 vi CONTENTS PAGR PREFATORY NoTE TO THE FIRST EDITION . v PuBLISHER's NoTE TO THE SECOND EDITION vi CHAPTER I FAMILY AND EARLY AssociATIONS. CHAPTER II SCHOOLDAYS 23 CHAPTER III CHAPTER IV DEATH OF PARNELL AND AFTER 81 CHAPTER V MYSTICISM IN PROSE AND VERSE • IOJ CHAPTER VI DRAMATIS PERSONAE: LADY GREGORY . 126 CHAPTER VII THEATRE AND PoLITICS: MAUD GoNNE . 145 CHAPTER VIII OuT OF TwiLIGHT 177 CHAPTER IX THE ABBEY THEATRE . 203 CHAPTER X PLAYs AND CoNTROVERSIEs . • 216 CHAPTER XI VARIETY (19Io-I2) • 243 CHAPTER XII RESPONSIBILITIES vii W. 'B. Y~·ats CHAPTER XIII PAGE NINETEEN-SIXTEEN 277 CHAPTER XIV MARRIAGE 307 CHAPTER XV OxFORD 324 CHAPTER XVI MEDITATIONS IN TIME OF CiVIL WAR 343 CHAPTER XVII A SIXTY-YEAR-OLD SMILING PuBLIC MAN 366 CHAPTER XVIII WHEELS AND BuTTERFLIEs 399 CHAPTER XIX RIVERSDALE 431 CHAPTER XX OLD AGE 444 CHAPTER XXI LAST DAYS 464 EPILOGUE 479 NoTES 481 BIBLIOGRAPHY 483 INDEX 485 viii
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