W.B. Yeats Book

Half a century ago, Norman Jeffares wrote the definitive biography of W.B. Yeats, which was subsequently published in a revised edition in 1990 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the poet's death. The present volume, a re-issue of the 1990 edition with a new introduction and bibliography, is an account of Yeats's life and work, together with a fascinating collection of letters, photographs and poetry.

Library Journal

This ``new biography'' is a complete rewrite of Jeffares's W.B. Yeats: Man and Poet (Yale Univ. Pr., 1949). The new book incorporates material that has become available over the past 40 years, giving us an ample and convincing account of Yeats's personal and public lives. His development as a poet, however, is treated more fully in Richard Ellmann's Yeats: The Man and the Masks (Macmillan, 1948; Norton, 1978. rev. ed.), which remains the best critical biography. Jeffares's book is notable for its strong narrative line and its unmatched gathering of 150 superb photographs and drawings. The best general introduction to Yeats's life currently available, it belongs in all academic and public libraries.-- Michael Hennessy, Southwest Texas State Univ., San Marcos