(ISABELLA) AUGUSTA GREGORY (1852-1932)

Lady Gregory was a leading figure in the Irish literary revival through her assistance to Yeats and others in founding the Irish Literary Theatre and her own translations of Irish legends. This letter is addressed to the British poet and friend of Oscar Wilde, John Gray (1866-1934), who spent many years as rector of St. Peter's in Edinburgh. It relates to his first volume of poetry Silverpoints (1893), which contained translations from Verlaine and Mallarme. Lady Gregory lamented the lack of cultural feeling in Scotland and noted, "Our Irish language revival . . . is beginning to . . . give a power of expression to those who never had it before."