George Roberts (publisher) George Roberts (publisher) George Roberts (1873–1953) was an Irish actor, poet and publisher. He was born in Belfast and became an actor with the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. He co-founded the publishing house of Maunsel and Company with Stephen Gwynn and Joseph Maunsel Hone. This firm published works by W. B. Yeats, John Millington Synge, Lady Gregory, George William Russell, James Stephens, Douglas Hyde and others and became part of the Irish Literary Revival. Between 1909 and 1912, when he visited Dublin, Joyce negotiated with Roberts to publish his book Dubliners, but their contract was not fulfilled, owing to a series
W. B. Yeats ancient sagas and Ossianic poetry and the more recent folk song tradition in Irish. One of the most significant of these was Douglas Hyde, later the first President of Ireland, whose "Love Songs of Connacht" was widely admired. In 1899, Yeats, Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and George Moore began the Irish Literary Theatre to present Irish plays. The ideals of the Abbey were derived from the avant-garde French theatre, which sought to express the "ascendancy of the playwright rather than the actor-manager "à l'anglais"." The group's manifesto, which Yeats wrote, declared, "We hope to find in Ireland an uncorrupted &