|
W.B.Yeats, Man and Poet OUT OF PRINT
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Nobel Prizewinner, is generally acknowledged as one of the major and most influential literary figures of the twentieth century. Considered by many to be the greatest poet writing in the English language of his time, he was also an important dramatist, critic, occult philosopher and autobiographer. Yeats's literary career extended over more than fifty years. His first book Mosada (1886) was published when he was tenty-one. He continued to write excellent poetry including The Wanderings of Oisin, The Wind Among the Reeds, The Tower, The Winding Stair, Last Poems and Plays; turned to occult philosophy (A Vision, 1925), and devoted much time and attention to drama and the theatre. In 1899, with Lady Gregory, he founded the Irish Literary Theatre, which developed into the Abbey Theatre in 1904. Interested in revolutionary and nationalist politics in his youth, he became a Senator of the Irish Free State in 1922. Professor Jeffares has based this study of Yeats not only upon information given to him by Mrs. Yeats, Madame Maude Gonne MacBride, and many of the poet's friends, but also upon private and unpublished papers - diaries, letters and manuscripts. The intellectual background and sources of many of the poems are established from an examination of Yeats's library and rough drafts. In addition to frequent quotations from unpublished work, much hitherto unpublished material of biographical and critical interest is included in this book. `If the reader is content to work through this rich storehouse of material he should be amply rewarded for he will find that Dr Jeffares illuminates a great many hitherto dark passages and brings the man before us where we had formerly only seen words.' The Guardian We have acquired all the stock of the Routledge & Kegan Paul 1978 printing of the second edition, and therefore have to give it one of our own ISBNs. 0-86140-360-6 £19.50 OUT OF PRINT 25/01/06 |
