W. B. Yeats W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. A pillar of the Irish literary establishment, he helped to found the Abbey Theatre, and in his later years served as a Senator of the Irish Free State for two terms. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival along with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and others. Yeats was born in Sandymount, Ireland and educated there and in London. He spent childhood holidays in County Sligo and studied poetry from an early age when
J. B. Priestley ignorance and dirt and drunkenness and disease." He moved into a new genre and became equally well known as a dramatist. "Dangerous Corner" (1932) was the first of many plays that would enthrall West End theatre audiences. His best-known play is "An Inspector Calls" (1945). His plays are more varied in tone than the novels, several being influenced by J. W. Dunne's theory of time, which plays a part in the plots of "Dangerous Corner" (1932) and "Time and the Conways". In 1940, Priestley wrote an essay for "Horizon" magazine, where he criticised George Bernard Shaw for his support of