Lady Isabella Augusta Gregory
Lady Gregory and W.B. Yeats became friends when they met in Galway in August 1896. Thirteen years Yeats’s elder, Lady Gregory had been widowed in 1892. Beginning in the summer of 1897, Yeats began spending many weeks each summer at Lady Gregory’s estate, Coole Park in County Galway, and many figures prominent in the Irish Literary Revival joined them there to read, write and plan. Lady Gregory served as a maternal figure and confidant for Yeats for many years.
Lady Gregory devoted her life to the development of a nationalist theatre in Dublin. Along with her tireless efforts to raise money for the Irish Literary Theater, she wrote plays and other works to promote a national Irish culture. Two genres of her work, a history and a play, are shown here.
Lady Isabella Augusta Gregory, 1852-1932.
My First Play
London: Elkin Mathews & Marrot, 1930.
(SPL) PR 4728 .G5 C6
My First Play, published just before Lady Gregory's death, was the first publication of her first dramatic work, Colman and Guaire, which she wrote in the 1890s. She continued to write plays for the rest of her life, many of which were produced by the Irish Literary Theatre and the Abbey Theatre. This book was published in a limited edition of 500 copies.
Lady Isabella Augusta Gregory, 1852 -1932.
A Book of Saints and Wonders Put Down Here by Lady Gregory According to the Old Writings and Memory of the People of Ireland
Dundrum, Ireland: The Dun Emer Press, 1906.
(SPL) BX 4659 .I7 G67x
A Book of Saints and Wonders shows Lady Gregory's deep interest in Irish history and folklore. The publisher, Dun Emer Press, was founded and administered by Yeats’s sister, Elizabeth Corbet Yeats.