Intimate Yeats letters up for sale

The lives and loves of the Yeats family will be illuminated in letters, works of art and personal effects to be sold at Sotheby’s in London on September 27.

The sale of more than 220 lots from one of Ireland’s most internationally known families of the 20th century comprises the personal effects of John Butler Yeats and his four children, poet WB, embroidery designer Lily, printing press pioneer Lolly and artist Jack.

Highlighting the collection is an archive of 133 letters from WB Yeats to his lifelong friend and first lover Olivia Shakespear spanning more than 40 years from 1894 to 1936. She was the subject of early love poems but over the years their erotic entanglement transformed into one of his most important and stable friendships. A significant cultural figure in her own right she introduced Yeats to Georgie Hyde-Lees, who became his wife, and to Ezra Pound.