Gregory, Isabella Augusta ___ 1852-1932 ___ Irish ___ writer

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Isabella Augusta Persse was born at Roxborough House, near Loughrea in County Galway. At 28 she married Sir William Henry Gregory, a 63 year old widower, who was an MP, a former Governor of Ceylon, and a trustee of the National Gallery. They lived in London, where she met famous writers and painters of the day, and spent their summers at Coole Park in Galway. When Gregory died in 1892, Isabella became more interested in Irish affairs, learning Irish and the Hiberno-English dialect of Kiltartan. In 1896, she met Yeats and, with him, collected Kiltartan folklore. A few years later, with Yeats and Edward Martyn, she established the Irish Literary Theatre (later the Abbey Theatre Company), and was a manager of the Abbey Theatre. Gregory published books of poetry, translations of short plays, and then began to write her own plays, the first of which was 'Twenty Five'. Many others - such as 'Spreading the News' and 'The Workhouse Ward' - followed. In the 1920s, she was probably the most performed playwright in Irish theatres. She also wrote local history books about Kiltartan and a history of the national theatre.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Yeats very charming

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1892-1902 1916-1930 ___ literary social political society people theatre

WEB TEXT LINKS
about and extracts
one or two extracts
a few pages

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
New York Public Libary - search: Lady Gregory AND Journal
Emory University Library

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Lady Gregory's Diaries 1892-1902
Lady Gregory's Journals 1916-1930
Diaries of Ireland

May 2005, June 2008, April 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.