"Murphy's pages read like an enthralling family novel."—The New Yorker
"Begetting genius is a good thing, possessing it is better. John Butler Yeats happily did both. Until now he has eluded definition, upstaged by his more famous offspring. . . . This new and compendious biography by William M. Murphy shows J. B. Yeats to have been worthy of his sons as they were of their father. . . . [Murphy] has woven together with great dexterity an absorbing and authoritative narrative."—New York Times Book Review
"An achievement nearly as rare as its subject, the right book written by exactly the right man."—Hugh Kenner
"Exact, searching, wide-ranging, critical and at the same time often amusing and always compassionate. This is a book on the grand scale. . . . Further enriched by many of J. B. Y.'s sketches."—Times Literary Supplement
"[A] brilliant work. . . . Exhaustive, well-written, and unpretentious. . . . This biography is close to being the history of the Yeats family and of the entire Irish revival as well."—Washington Post Book World
About the Author
William M. Murphy is Thomas Lamont Professor of Ancient and Modern Literature Emeritus at Union College. His books include The Yeats Family and the Pollexfens of Sligo, Letters from Bedford Park: A Selection from the Correspondence (1890-1901) of John Butler Yeats, and Family Secrets: William Butler Yeats and His Relatives, the latter also published by Syracuse University Press.
September 2001