Augustine Martin (1935–1995)

W. B. Yeats is a short biography (153 pp.) of the Irish poet William Butler Yeats, which was published as volume 18 in the series of Great Biographies of "lives that shaped the nation" with the Irish Independent listed as co-publisher (2006), in a handsome, small-size hardcover edition. In fact, it is a reissue of a biography which was first published in 1983, authored by the late Augustine Martin (1935-1995), who was Professor of Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama at University College Dublin, Director of the Yeats International Summer School in Sligo, and a member of the Seanad Éireann from 1973 to 1981. Martin was also the editor of W. B. Yeats, Collected poems (London: Arena (1983)), and obviously writes on Yeats with great authority, which is evident from his confident style. Perhaps due to the intended audience, and year of conception (in the early 80s), this short biography focuses less on the works of Yeats and more on his political life. Yeats was strongly committed to the Irish cause, and so were the women in his life, particularly Maud Gonne, whom he woed for many years, and unsuccesfully proposed to twice, as well as Lady Gregory who remained important to him throughout his life. This gives the biography a strong political slant.

In Ein springender Brunnen the German author Martin Walser suggested that the rise of fascism was in part due to the ongoing struggles between communists and fascists, while the people who were wary of politics languished in a dream-like state, adhering to esoteric beliefs and eastern philosophy. Yeats didn't get married until 1916, when he was already 51 years old, to Georgie Hyde Lees, who was deeply interested in spirituality. Together with their interest in traditional culture, Yeats manifested interest in fascism. His biographer, however, states that the larger picture should be taken into account, that "the age was desperate, time out of joint" (p.112). Since 1922, Yeats was a member of the Irish Senate, a body fiercely and violently opposed. His final years, his years of fame, particularly after winning the Nobel Prize in 1923, were dominated by political struggle.… (meer)