Yeats: The Man And The Masks

One of the most influential poets of his age, W.B. Yeats eluded the grasp of many who sought to explain him. His life was complex in both its outer and inner events. Yeats's mystical concerns, such as his involvement with spiritualism and construction of a transcendental world system in A Vision, coexisted and occasionally clashed with his active involvement in public affairs. In this classic critical examination of the poet, Richard Ellmann strips away the masks of his occultist, senator of the Irish Free State, libidinous old man, and Nobel Prize winner.

Yeat's life was one of the most complex of all the poets' in its outer and inner events. Mystical concerns - involvement with spiritualism, construction of a transcendental world system in A Vision - fitted among and around an unusually active involvement in public affairs, as a founder of the Abbey Theatre and as a senator of the new Irish Free State.