The Yeats We Knew

EDITED BY FRANCIS MACMANUS

That deep man, William Butler Yeats, was saluted as the greatest poet of our century. He puzzled, fascinated, astonished, charmed, antagonized and even patronized his contemporaries. What was he like? Was the intimate private poet the same figure as the politician, the alleged poseur, the handsome man who moved slowly and hieratically through a street or a drawing-room?

Five of his contemporaries recall him from the living portrait gallery of their memories in this lively book, The Yeats We Knew. The five men are all distinguished writers - poets, novelists, and publicists - and they are Padraic Colum, Francis Stuart, Monk Gibbon, Austin Clarke and Earn n de Blaghd. The portraits differ in details but they all add up to a picture of a most potent Irish personality whose words and ideas still work profoundly in minds and hearts.

These five contributions, edited and introduced by Francis MacManus, are the texts of Thomas Davis Lectures broadcast on Radio ireann to celebrate the centenary of the poet's birth in 1965.