Featuring letters that cover a formative period in W B Yeats' political career, and the beginning of his theatrical involvement, this work appeals to those interested in modern poetry, Irish drama, and cultural history. In each letter, Yeat's private concerns, artistic quarrels and exhausting political life are revealed.

Seamus Heaney has described The Collected Letters as "one of the great publishing events of the decade." This volume covers a formative period (1896-1900) in Yeats's political career, and the beginning of his theatrical involvement. Letter by letter, Yeats's private concerns, artistic quarrels, and exhausting political life are revealed. Rich and readable notes provide a narrative for these years, explaining allusions, and setting the correspondence in its cultural and political contexts.

From reviews of Volume I: `magnificent ... The detail is immense and spot on, so that the footnotes read as a continuous, densely peopled, unfailingly informative documentary on the life and times of the sedulous correspondent ... the start of an edition that is going to be one of the great publishing events of the decade.' Seamus Heaney, Observer