Author Description

Offering valuable insights into Irish literary history, this second volume of the journals of Lady Gregory completes the typed version of her diaries and adds the unedited text of the manuscript diary she kept from November 1930 until two weeks before her death. It describes her continuing efforts to get the Lane Pictures returned to Ireland; the passing of Coole into the hands of the Irish Forestry Department; Abbey Theatre problems; the conflict over Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars and break with him over the refusal of The Silver Tassie; Denis Johnston's connection with the Abbey as producer and playwright (with illuminating insights into the Abbey's refusal of The Lady Says 'No!'); and other controversial matters. Plagued by ill health, Lady Gregory was nevertheless determined not to give in to old age, and she relates her daily struggle against her infirmities with calm objectivity.