Description
Correspondence, photographs, postcards, writings,
reminiscences, and other materials relating to the Irish poet, political activist,
and mystic Ella Young. The bulk of the collection consists of letters exchanged
between Young and Scripps College Librarian Dorothy Drake from 1951 to 1955, letters
addressed from Young to Elsa Gidlow between 1951 and 1956, and letters between
Gidlow and Drake and Sybil M. Fielder, her successor as Scripps College Librarian,
from 1953 to 1972. The collection includes a recorded interview, together with a
published account, with photographs, of a visit to Young in 1951 by Drake and two
colleagues; another recorded interview with Young from 1953; a small number of her
interpretations of Irish traditions; and number of poems by Gidlow.
Background
Ella Young, poet and mythographer, was born in Ballymena, co. Antrim, on December 26,
1867, the eldest of the eight children of James Bristow Young, a cornbroker, and
Matilda Ann, née Russell. The family were Presbyterian and unionist. They moved
several times during Ella's childhood, setting eventually in Rathmines, Dublin,
where she completed her education, studying at Alexandra College and graduating BA
in law and political science from the Royal University in 1898. She joined the
Dublin branch of the Theosophical Society in the 1890s and became a protégé of Irish
nationalist and writer George William Russell. Her first collection, Poems, was published in 1906 by the Tower Press, with
which Russell was closely associated. She subsequently published two more
collections of poetry in Ireland, The Rose of Heaven
(1920) and The Weird of Fionavar (1922).
Extent
0.4 linear foot
1 box (13 folders).
Restrictions
For permission to reproduce or to publish, please consult Ella Strong Denison Library
Special Collections staff.
Availability
The collection is available for research.