Dates

• Existence: 1852 - 1932

Biographical Note

Lady Gregory was born Isabella Augusta Persse in 1852, in Galway. In 1880 she married Sir William Gregory, who owned Coole Park, an estate in County Galway. She published her first work under her own name, Arabi and His Household, in 1882, and a series of poems called A Woman's Sonnets which appeared anonymously in a work of Blunt's. In 1892, Sir William Gregory died and Lady Gregory edited his autobiography. In the 1890s she began to study Irish language and culture in earnest and eventually became involved in the Irish nationalist movement. She collected Irish fairy tales and legends; composed poems, plays, and other literary works; and wrote pamphlets and articles concerning home rule. Lady Gregory befriended W.B. Yeats in 1896, and together they founded the Irish Literary Theatre in 1899. She died in 1932.

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