Yeats, William Butler

This Irish author and mystic was born in 1866 in Dublin. He started out at Dublin Art School but soon realised that his future was in literature and left. He moved to London where he befriended Mr George Moore and My Arthur Symons, and he soon started to produce impressive works - including volumes of beautiful poetry. His more recognised work includes 'The Wanderings of Oison' and 'The Wind among the Reeds'.

He published a collection of Irish folk tales in 1870 and he began to show that he was a thoughtful critic. He predicted a new literary movement approaching in Ireland in his folk tale collection and the end of the 19th century saw Ireland's intellectuals start to manifest an interest in the legends and lore of the country. There were many promising literary men in Ireland to embrace the revival, and they looked to Yeats as the movement's guide. He moved home to Ireland and founded the Irish Literary Theatre.

He published a collection of essays called 'Ideas of Good and Evil' which was an important contribution to mystic literature. The volume includes a lengthy study of magic, and declares his belief in its practice and philosophy. It's not only his prose that details Yeats' interest in the supernatural, he also indicated it throughout his poems. Much of his verse tells of his visions, and he details conversations with things which appear lifeless to others, such as trees and rivers.