William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet, dramatist, and prose writer, one of the greatest English-language poets of the 20th century. During the period of approximately 1890 to 1920, W. B. Yeats involved himself in a wide range of literary, theatrical and political pursuits. In addition to his own writing, Yeats often edited collections of contemporary writers for various publishers, and acted in the capacity of literary advisor/editor for the Dun Emer and Cuala Presses.

In 1894, Yeats’s "The Land of Heart’s Desire" was produced at the Avenue Theatre in London with Shaw’s "Arms and the Man." It was shortly after this that Yeats made the acquaintance of Lady Augusta Gregory. Lady Gregory provided life-long aid and friendship to Yeats, and it was her support and encouragement that Yeats’ long-desired concept of an Irish Theatre came into being in the establishment of the Irish National Theatre Society, or as it is usually called, the Abbey Theatre.

In the 1900s Yeats began his lecture circuits in America and his Abbey Players, accompanied by either Yeats himself or Lady Gregory, also made American tours at this time. Yeats enjoyed an overwhelmingly positive reception by American scholars, yet concurrently, as Irish-Anglo tensions intensified, he felt drawn to support Irish efforts at home.

Yeats married Miss Hyde-Lees in 1917; their daughter Anne was born two years later. It was during this time that they used Ballylee Tower as a summer home. The Tower figured as a prominent subject of his poetry. Yeats continued to keep an apartment in Oxford during 1919, where he and his wife often conducted “Monday At-Homes” for the students of the University. Thus, through his literary, theatrical, and political interests, Yeats promoted the Irish Revivalist Movement. As a successful Irish literary figure and patriot, Yeats became a symbol of the tradition of Irish Modernists.