Book Description

The author examines Yeats' poetry in the context of the political situation in Ireland from the anti-Irish conscription campaign in Spring 1918 to Yeats' death in January 1939. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Hard to put down
This book is hard to put down. Scott gives a detailed description of his career, his relationship with Neil as a friend and as a son, Neil's rise to Stardom and plenty of interesting stories. It is a must for anyone wanting to explore Neil Young as a musician and as a person.

Very informative. Great insight to Neil's formative years.
Loved the book, bought others for friends. It's been several years, so I might read it again. Just gave one to 19 year female college student, she was very grateful! So Neil lives on!!Thanks Neil for all the hours of great music!!!!!

Any true Neil Young fan shouldn't miss this.
This book depicts Neil's life as seen from the eyes of his father's. Early childhood stories quickly give way to Neil's first meeting with Stephen Stills in New York, the journey to California from Ontario, formation of Buffalo Springfield etc. Chocked full of trivia, who met who and why various bands were formed. CSN&Y years up through the tour with the Shocking Pinks (and Dad)in the early 80's. I couldn't put this book down. Rather than have a fatherly perspective, Scott Young tells this tale as a biography of his best friend. I highly recommend this book if you're into Neil at all, you won't be sorry. ... Read more

Book Description

This complete and unauthorized audiobiography of Neil Young presents an inside look at this living legend. After a career of more than 30 years and record sales well into the millions, Young's influence can be seen in a number of bands and artists. With the growing interest resulting from his latest album Are You Passionate?, which debuted in the top 10 of the Billboard charts, it provides an opportunity for fans both old and new to get the real story behind the music. ... Read more

Amazon.com

At this point in literary history, any biographer of W.B. Yeats is up against some stiff competition. Most of the late Richard Ellmann's work on the poet is, alas, out of print. But to judge from its first installment, R.F. Foster's double-decker life looks to be a monumental accomplishment, while in the recent Yeats' Ghosts, Brenda Maddox casts a cold (and discerning) eye over her subject's erotic life and supernatural predilections. Now comes The Life of W.B. Yeats by the Irish scholar Terence Brown. His book is very much a critical biography, attending more to the perfection of art than the perfection of life (while gracefully conceding that neither in fact exists). So there's relatively little frolicking around in the poet's boudoir à la Maddox. Still, Brown has a gift for conveying the texture of Yeats's life, selecting just the right details from what is now a copious historical record. Here he delivers a fine snapshot of the poet paying court to chain smoker Iseult Gonne after having been spurned by her notorious mommy:

In August 1917 Yeats had visited Maud and Iseult Gonne in Normandy where he renewed his suit for Iseult's hand. She was moody, sickly from over-indulgence in cigarettes, flirtatiously affectionate but no more inclined to marry Yeats than she had been the previous summer. Her mother he found surrounded by the usual menagerie which included a laughing parrot whose forte was peals of hysterical laughter.

Book Description

This is a detailed textual and critical study of all Yeats's important autobiographical prose, concentrating on the book àIAutobiographies but considering other texts as well. Contents: Introduction; John Sherman andàR "The Speckled Bird; Reveries Over Childhood and Youth; The Trembling of the Veil; Dramatis Personae; " "Estrangement and" "The Death of Synge; The Bounty of Sweden; Conclusion" ... Read more

Book Description

One of the most influential figures of the twentieth century, William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) is among the greatest poets to have written in the English language. He was a multi-talented writer, fascinated by the occult, an important dramatist, critic and autobiographer, with a career extending over more than fifty years. Professor Jeffares investigates the relationship between Yeats's life and his work. He considers the crucial moments as well as the famous relationships that changed Yeats's destiny. A founder of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, Yeats was also a Senator of the Irish Free State. His life has provided a remarkably rich and varied canvas for this timeless biography. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

An excellent book.
Readable, articulate and superbly well-researched, this biography was obviously written with the whole self of the author put into the task. Yeats's development as a poet in particular is charted discerningly and in its full context; my only criticism is that occasionally exegesis of the poetry is over-simple. This aside, Jeffares evokes Yeats as both man and poet knowingly and with finesse; the book has the type of breadth that makes for the standard biography. Any reader of Yeats could not help but be illuminated by this work. ... Read more