Welcome to another entry in a series on Irish writers of the fantastic. Swan River Press takes us on a tour through Ireland’s fantasy heritage.
“He called to it and said, ‘Tell me what you are?’ ”
– “The Unquiet Dead” (1920)
Lady Augusta Gregory (1852-1932), noted folklorist and playwright, was born Isabella Augusta Persse to a wealthy Anglo-Irish family in Co. Galway on 15 March 1852. In 1880 she married Sir William Henry Gregory, former Member of Parliament and once-governor of Ceylon. After Sir William’s death in 1892, Lady Gregory started collecting Irish legends and folklore, a lifelong interest that took form as Cuchulain of Muirthemne (1902), Gods and Fighting Men (1904), A Book of Saints and Wonders (1906), and Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland (1920). She was a friend and collaborator of W. B. Yeats, with whom she co-founded the Abbey Theatre in 1904. She also wrote a number of plays, mainly comedies and fantasies inspired by Irish myths. After stepping down as director of the Abbey Theatre in 1928, she retired to her family residence at Coole Park, where she did on 22 May 1932. She is today remembered as one of the leading lights of the Celtic Revival.
Read Lady Augusta Gregory at Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/4092
