W.B. Yeats, A Life

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In the first authorized biography of W.B. Yeats in over fifty years, Roy Foster offers a fresh perspective on the poet's intricate life during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Utilizing a wealth of personal and contemporary materials, Foster reshapes traditional views, shedding light on Yeats's family history, relationships, politics, and artistic evolution. The narrative traces Yeats's journey from a childhood steeped in déclassé Irish Protestantism and nationalist sentiments to becoming a distinguished poet, concluding with the challenges he faced at fifty amid the upheaval of World War I. His bohemian lifestyle, marked by financial uncertainty, romantic entanglements, avant-garde friendships, and explorations of drugs and occultism, sets the stage for his efforts to merge politics with high culture and establish an Irish national theatre. As he navigates between Dublin, Coole Park, and London, with visits to America and Paris, Yeats crafts a public persona and a creative legacy that draws both admiration and criticism. His life intertwines with notable figures like Lady Gregory, J. M. Synge, and Maud Gonne, whose influence profoundly shaped his work. The pursuit of supernatural wisdom, evident in Yeats's occult notebooks, parallels the insecurities in his personal life, illustrating the development of a poet's mind and a remarkable personality that played a pivotal role in shaping a radicalized Irish natio