Book Details

Ella Young, Irish Mystic and Rebel: From Literary Dublin to the American West

Rose Murphy

Price:	£12.99
Publication Date:	24 Jul 2008
Availability:	Available to buy
Restrictions:	Not available to buy in Ireland Australia New Zealand USA South Africa Canada

Ella Young (1867–1956), an Irish storyteller of Celtic heroes and magic curses, had a fascinating, overlooked life story. She guarded weapons hidden under floorboards for Dublin rebels during the 1920s, hobnobbed with W.B. Yeats, shared a house with Maud Gonne, talked to spirits in the windswept dunes of California’s Pacific Coast, and lectured to overflowing crowds at the University of California at Berkeley. A mystical, whimsical woman, she gathered stories from the west of Ireland and took them across the Atlantic when she emigrated to California -- alone at the age of 56.

Ella Young, Irish Mystic and Rebel is more than just a portrait of a captivating writer, storyteller, mystic, rebel and immigrant, however. The book also provides her insider’s view of iconic figures and cultural movements in two countries, beginning with the heady years of Ireland's Literary Renaissance and her relationship with such major players as Yeats and AE, and her friendships with Maud Gonne and the Easter Rising rebel Patrick Pearse. The story then moves on to her association with artists in the American West such as photographer Ansel Adams and poet Robinson Jeffers. In her later years she was friends with the mystical 'Dunites', the group of dreamers and drifters who lived in the California coastal dunes in the 1930s and 40s.

Throughout the book, Ella’s zest for life, her mystical encounters with the spirit world and her love of a good tale shine through. Above all, the book provides an absorbing portrait of an extraordinary woman who lived during extraordinary times.

Reviews

'In Ella Young, Irish Mystic and Rebel, Rose Murphy rescues a significant figure from Ireland's "most splendid time".'
-- Robert Tracy, Emeritus Professor of English and Celtic Studies, University of California, Berkeley

About the Author(s)

Rose Murphy has lecturered in English and literature at California colleges, and currently teaches classes on Irish culture in her home town of Sonoma, California. Her own Irish roots go back to County Cork and County Kerry and she travels frequently to Ireland.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. From Childhood Ghosts to Dublin Mystics
2. Spirits and Caves in the West of Ireland
3. Yeats, Maud Gonne and George Moore's Green Door
4. Gun-Running and the Easter Rising
5. The American West, Splended as a Lioness
6. New Mexico: Indian Dances and Taos Artists
7. Drifters, Dreamers and Mystical Dunes
8. Dying the Moment of Her choosing
9. Writing the Lost Legacy

Of Further Interest

By Ella Young:
Celtic Wonder Tales and other stories, including stories from her previous books Celtic Wonder Tales, The Wonder Smith and His Son, The Tangle-Coated Horse, and The Unicorn with Silver Shoes