Letters from William Butler Yeats to Elkin Mathews, together with some correspondence of other members of the Yeats family, typescripts of two short stories composed by Lily Yeats, and miscellaneous other material

This material is held atUniversity of Leeds Special Collections

Reference
- GB 206 Brotherton Collection MS 20c Yeats
Dates of Creation
- 1894-1921
Name of Creator
- Yeats, William Butler, 1865-1939
Language of Material
- English
Physical Description
- 3 vols and 1 folder containing the letters and other manuscripts extracted from the volumes; manuscript, typescript, a press cutting, and printed material. All three volumes are bound in green cloth with half leather spines gilt-embossed with the details of the letters which were once held in them. The volumes now contain only the typed transcripts of these letters; all three of them have Lord Brotherton's bookplate pasted on to their inside front covers.

Scope and Content

Comprises: [Vol.1], Autograph manuscript letters from William Butler Yeats to Elkin Mathews, with additional letters from Elkin Mathews and John Lane to William Butler Yeats, dated between 1894 and 1914, with some stamped-addressed envelopes; [Vol.2], Autograph manuscript letters from Jack Butler Yeats and Mary Cottenham Yeats to Elkin Mathews, dated between 1897 and 1921, with some stamped-addressed envelopes, a printed press cutting extracted from the Sligo Independent for 13 December, 1901, two receipts, a Cuala Press booklist, a printed advertisement for a broadsheet published by Pamela Colman Smith and Jack B. Yeats, and a pencilled poem and drawing on the verso of a memorandum from Elkin Mathews; and [Vol.3], Autograph manuscript letters from Elizabeth Corbet Yeats to Elkin Mathews, dated between 1903 and 1918, with two stamped-addressed envelopes, an autograph manuscript letter from John Butler Yeats to Elkin Mathews, dated 1906, two further Cuala Press printed booklists, a printed advertisement for classes in embroidery and weaving issued by the Yeats sisters, and two duplicated typescript short stories composed by Lily Yeats and entitled 'The Red Rose' and 'The White Rose'.

Administrative / Biographical History

William Butler Yeats, the Irish poet and playwright, was born on 13 June 1865 in Dublin and died on 28 January 1939 at Roquebrune, near Monaco. Jack Butler Yeats, the Irish painter and writer, his younger brother, was born on 29 August 1871 in London and died on 28 March 1957 in Dublin. For fuller details of their lives and achievements see the Dictionary of National Biography. John Butler Yeats (1839-1922), the painter, was their father. For fuller details of his life and achievements see Who was who, Vol.2. Mary Cottenham Yeats was Jack's wife. Elizabeth Corbet Yeats and Lily Yeats, the sisters of W.B. and J.B. Yeats, were the founders of the Dun Emer (later known as the Cuala) Industries, at Dundrum, Co. Dublin. Here Elizabeth Corbet Yeats established a private press, where many of W.B. Yeats' books were published. Elkin Mathews and John Lane (1854-1925) were both publishers. For fuller details of John Lane's life and achievements again see the Dictionary of National Biography.