Becoming George

About this book

"'I, the poet William Yeats ... Restored this tower for my wife George' claims the lovely six-line poem in which Yeats dedicates the renovation of Thoor Ballylee. But the poem's truth conceals another, and different truth - that they worked together at the restoration, and it was largely her vision and hands that created a dwelling from the former ruins. Just how symbolic this is, of the close but largely hidden collaboration between them, is revealed by this deeply-researched life of George Yeats - the first full-scale biography of a woman of remarkable gifts and generous self concealment." "For the first time, this woman is allowed to take centre stage. Drawing on memoirs and a wealth of unknown and unpublished sources, this biography by the distinguished scholar Ann Saddlemyer reveals someone much more significant than just 'Mrs. W.B. Yeats' - a personality at once visionary and practical, and an important figure in twentieth-century literary history."--Jacket.