Gregory, Lady Augusta
Gregory, Lady Augusta
(Isabella Augusta Persse), 1859–1932, Irish dramatist. Though she did not begin her writing career until middle-age, Lady Gregory soon became a vital force in the Irish drama. She was a founder and the manager-director of the Abbey TheatreAbbey Theatre,Irish theatrical company devoted primarily to indigenous drama. W. B. Yeats was a leader in founding (1902) the Irish National Theatre Society with Lady Gregory, J. M. Synge, and A. E. (George Russell) contributing their talents as directors and dramatists.
..... Click the link for more information. , for which she wrote many of her most successful pieces, including Cathleen ni Houlihan (1902), written with friend and colleague W. B. YeatsYeats, W. B.
(William Butler Yeats), 1865–1939, Irish poet and playwright, b. Dublin. The greatest lyric poet Ireland has produced and one of the major figures of 20th-century literature, Yeats was the acknowledged leader of the Irish literary renaissance.
..... Click the link for more information. , Spreading the News (1904), The Gaol Gate (1906), The Rising of the Moon (1907), and The Workhouse Ward (1908). Her short plays, mainly comedies, are rich in portrayals of Irish peasantry. Among her other works are Our Irish Theater (1913) and several long plays dealing with Irish history.
Bibliography
See her journals (ed. by L. Robinson, 1946); biography by C. Tóibín (2003); studies by H. Adams (1973) and M. L. Kohfeldt (1985).