New Island are delighted to announce they will publish Pilgrim Soul - W.B. Yeats and the Ireland of his Time by former ambassador of Ireland to the United States Daniel Mulhall this October. The book marks the centenary of Yeats’s Nobel Prize, a timely guide to the work of Ireland’s national poet and the changing Ireland he lived through.
From the Celtic Twilight, through the revolutionary period to his public poet status in the 1930s, W.B. Yeats lived through extraordinary times and made a lasting contribution to Ireland through his writing. In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first such honour to be awarded to an Irish person.
Mulhall brings his awareness of the role of Yeats and other Irish writers in the state’s use of soft power. Following the huge success of his personal guide to Ulysses in 2022, Mulhall returns with a similarly accessible and illuminating guide to W.B. Yeats and his special position in the Ireland of his time. Each chapter takes a poem and a major historical event as its starting point and focuses on Yeats’s Irishness and his contribution to his country as it transitioned towards independence.
Mulhall commented on his motivation behind writing Pilgrim Soul, ‘I have maintained an interest in Yeats since student days and have always seen him as an insightful witness to a transformative era in Irish history. I decided to write Pilgrim Soul to mark the centenary of Yeats’s Nobel Prize in 1923, which was awarded to him in recognition of his writing and his role in the advent of Ireland’s independence. My book focuses on Yeats’s engagement with Ireland and on the impact of events in Ireland on the evolution of his poetry.’
Waterford-born Daniel Mulhall is currently Parnell Fellow at the University of Cambridge. He spent more than 40 years in Ireland’s diplomatic service, including to the UK, Germany and the United States. He has written and lectured around the world on the subject of Irish literature, and in particular the work of James Joyce, and has worked tirelessly throughout his career to further the impact and reach of Irish writing globally.
