William Butler Yeats was born on 13 June 1865 in Dublin, the eldest of six children. His father abandoned a career in the law for a precarious life as a painter and much of Yeats' childhood was divided between Dublin, London and Sligo. In 1897 he helped found the Irish Literary Theatre, which was to lead to the Abbey Theatre in 1904. Fascinated by Irish folklore, the First World War, Anglo-Irish and Irish Civil War intensified and increasing disillusionment with the modern world. In 1917 Yeats married Georgie Hyde-Lees, whose automatic writing was the basis for his 'philosophy'. In 1922 he was appointed to the new Irish Senate and the following year he won the Nobel Prize.

First published in 1997 by Everyman Paperbacks.