Author:
W. B. Yeats [William Butler Yeats], Irish poet, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature [Annie Horniman [Annie Elizabeth Fredericka Horniman] (1860-1937), patron of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin]
Publication details:
11 May 1903; 18 Woburn Buildings, Euston Road, London.
Written at a crucial time in the run-up to the foundation of the Abbey Theatre. As Horniman's entry in the Oxford DNB states: 'In 1903 Yeats lured Annie to Dublin where he hoped her backing for productions by the Irish Literary Theatre would bring more of his poetic dramas to the stage. To her delight Yeats invited her to design his play The King's Threshold. Annie soon realized she was administrator rather than artist, and the atmosphere of an amateur company directed by three playwrights—Yeats, Lady Gregory, and J. M. Synge—was never congenial.
