On the afternoon of October 24th 1917, four days after my marriage, my wife surprised me by attempting automatic writing. What came…was so exciting, sometimes so profound, that I persuaded her to give an hour or two day after day to the unknown writer. - WB Yeats to Ezra Pound
@johnstonglenn That was such a clever way of his wife not challenging or threatening him!
@johnstonglenn OTD 1917, Yeats discovered his wife was a better writer than he was.
@johnstonglenn There's also anecdotal thought that the early days of marriage were not smooth but the emergence of George's talent put all to rights on every level, including the connubial one 😊
@johnstonglenn Marvellously, I gave a talk on this very subject at our Golden Dawn Study Day (University of Surrey) earlier this month at the Museum of Freemasonry. Poor Georgie, 'The Communicators' didn't even leave her alone in sleep, but utilised her dreamscape to give 'instruction' to WBY.
@johnstonglenn Four days into his marriage, Yeats was pining for Maud Gonne’s daughter. Georgie figured out how to capture his attention. Among other things, the spirits told Will to bed George twice a day & make sure she was satisfied. She made that marriage work & improved his poetry too.
@johnstonglenn Not much warmth between them, in this photograph.