William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), one of the 20th century’s seminal literary figures,  was awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize for Literature in recognition of “his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation.” Yeats was born in Dublin and educated in London and in Dublin, but spent summers in the west of Ireland at his family’s house at Connaught. He founded the Irish Theatre, together with Lady Gregory, which was to become the Abbey Theatre.