Life
1866-1949 [“Lily”; her father’s favourite]; b. Enniscrone,
nr. Sligo; elder sister of W. B. Yeats; taught art to school-children;
suffered year-long illness from typhoid fever, 1896-97; found work in
London as embroideress under May Morris, and later her assistant; invited
to join Evelyn Gleeson in Dun Emer arts and crafts workshop, and worked
thereafter for Dun Emer Guild, managing the embroidery section; produced
writing and painting books.
[ top ]
Criticism
Gifford Lewis, The Yeats Sisters (IAP 1994).
Joan Hardwick, The Yeats Sisters: A Biography of Susan and Elizabeth Yeats (London: Pandora 1996), 271pp., 16 ills.
Maureen Murphy, ed., I Call to the Eye of the Mind: a Memoir of Sara Hyland (Dublin: Attic Press 1996), 204pp. [memories of working for the Yeats sisters from 1908].
Sarah Rigby, review of Joan Hardwick, The Yeats Sisters,
in London Review of Books, 18 July 1996, p.20-21
[ top ]
Notes
In thrall?: Lily is considered by Joan Hardwick to have been the
more in thrall of the two sisters to her brother Willie, and therefore
inclined to accept his critical attitude to Lolly. (The Yeats Sisters;
reviewed by Mary Campbell, Books Ireland, Dec. 1996).
Portrait in oil by John Butler Yeats [NGI]; and note, her embroidery sketch of the Abbey, in the possession of Cyril Cusack, was displayed at the Yeats Centenary Exhibition of the National Gallery of Ireland, 1965.
[ top ]
Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)