W. B. Yeats: A New Biography PDF
Preview W. B. Yeats: A New Biography
W. B. YEATS A. Norman Jeffares, educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and Oriel College, Oxford, has taught in the Universities of Dublin, Groningen, Edinburgh, Adelaide and Stirling. Though he has edited twenty- four Restoration comedies and selections of William Cowper and Walt Whitman, his main interest is in Irish literature. Founder and Life President of the International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures, he has written on the work of many Irish authors, including Swift, Farquhar, Goldsmith, Sheridan, Maria Edgeworth, Charles Lever, George Moore, W. B. Yeats and James Joyce. He has a particular interest in Yeats's work. In addition to the poet's widow and children, his sister Lily and brother Jack, he has known many of Yeats's friends and contemporaries, including Maud Gonne, her daughter Iseult and son Sean MacBride, Lennox Robinson, Harry Norman, W. J. Turner and Frank O'Connor. A former Chairman of Book Trust, Scotland, President of International PEN Scotland, a member of ACGB, Vice-Chairman of the Scottish Arts Council and Vice-President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he now lives at Fife Ness, where he is writing his own Anecdotes, completing a third book of poems and returning to an early interest in drawing and painting. BY THE SAME AUTHOR Trinity College, Dublin: Drawings and Descriptions W. B. Yeats: Man and Poet Oliver Goldsmith The Poetry of W.B.Yeats George Moore The Circus Animals: Essays on W. B. Yeats A Commentary on the Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats A Commentary on the Collected Plays of W. B. Yeats (with A. S. Knowland) Jonathan Swift A History of Anglo-Irish Literature Brought up in Dublin (poems) Brought up to Leave (poems) A New Commentary on the Poems of W. B. Yeats A Pocket History of Irish Literature Images of Imagination: Essays on Irish Writing The Irish Literary Movement Edited works include Poems of W.B.Yeats Selected Poems of W. B. Yeats Selected Prose of W. B. Yeats Selected Plays of W. B. Yeats Selected Criticism of W. B. Yeats Cowper: Selected Poems and Letters W. B. Yeats: The Critical Heritage Whitman: Selected Poems and Prose Restoration Drama (4 vols) Yeats, Sligo and Ireland Poems of W. B. Yeats: A New Selection Yeats's Poems Yeats the European W. B. Yeats: A Vision and Related Writings The Gonne-Yeats Letters: Always Your Friend (with Anna MacBride White) Swift: The Selected Poems Victorian Love Poems Irish Love Poems Irish Childhoods (with Antony Kamm) W. B. Yeats: The Love Poems Ireland's Women: Writings Past and Present (with Katie Donovan and Brendan Kennelly) James Joyce: The Poems in Verse and Prose (with Brendan Kennelly) The Love Poems of Ireland: Wonder and a Wild Desire Oliver St John Gogarty: Poems and Plays W. B. Yeats A New Biography A. Norman Jeffares CONTINUUM London and New York Continuum The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX 370 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10017-6503 First published in Great Britain by Hutchinson 1988. Arena edition 1990 This revised edition published by Continuum 2001 ©A. N.Jeffaresl988 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 0-8264-5524-7 (paperback) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jeffares, A. Norman (Alexander Norman), 1920- W. B. Yeats, a new biography / A. Norman Jeffares. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8264-5524-7 (pbk.) 1. Yeats, W. B. (William Butler), 1865-1939. 2. Poets, Irish-19th century-Biography. 3. Poets, Irish-20th century-Biography. I. Title. PR5906 J419 2001 821'.8-dc21 [B] 2001028179 Printed and bound in Great Britain by The Guernsey Press Co. Ltd, Guernsey, Channel Islands TO ALASDAIR, BRENDAN, COLIN, SARAH AND WARWICK FOR FRIENDSHIP AND MANY KINDNESSES This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Acknowledgement ix Introduction to the Continuum edition xi CHAPTER ONE 1865-1881 1 CHAPTER TWO 1881-1887 15 CHAPTER THREE 1887-1891 31 CHAPTER FOUR 1891-1894 46 CHAPTER FIVE 1894-1897 60 CHAPTER SIX 1897-1900 80 CHAPTER SEVEN 1900-1902 91 CHAPTER EIGHT 1902-1907 106 CHAPTER NINE 1907-1910 123 CHAPTER TEN 1910-1913 138 CHAPTER ELEVEN 1913-1916 152 CHAPTER TWELVE 1916-1917 173 CHAPTER THIRTEEN 1917-1919 181 CHAPTER FOURTEEN 1919-1923 201 CHAPTER FIFTEEN 1923-1927 219 CHAPTER SIXTEEN 1927-1932 236 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 1932-1935 252 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 1935-1939 271 Notes 293 Bibliography 311 Index 319 This page intentionally left blank ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to thank A. P. Watt Ltd, acting on behalf of Michael B. Yeats, for permission to quote from W. B. Yeats's poems, plays and prose. Every effort has been made to trace other copyright holders, and full acknowledgement will be made in future editions if the publisher is informed.
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