W. B. Yeats

William Butler Yeats was born in 1865 in Dublin, Ireland, the son of a portrait painter. He was educated in Dublin and London and spent childhood holidays in County Sligo, in the west of Ireland. He studied at an art school in Dublin before turning to poetry. From an early age he was fascinated by Irish legends, which shaped his early poems. In 1889 he met Maud Gonne, an actress and campaigner for Irish independence, whom he loved for many years. With Lady Gregory and others he helped found the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, which opened in 1904 and became Ireland's national theatre. His later poetry, in collections such as The Tower (1928), became more direct and powerful, and poems such as 'Easter, 1916' and 'The Second Coming' are among the most famous in English. In 1917 he married Georgie Hyde-Lees. After Irish independence he served as a senator of the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1928. In 1923 he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in France in 1939.

W. B. Yeats is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Raised Protestant; he held strong interests in mysticism and the occult. Source: Wikipedia