It is harsh exercise to put into cold print and to bare all the faults of such subjective things as letters written 'in great haste' in the middle of a busy active life, and it requires the kindness and tolerance of the reader. Nuances in the handwriting, or insertion of omitted words and afterthoughts, or positioning of postscripts, are all lost in printing; while irregularities in spelling, punctuation, abbreviations and repetitious phrases are exaggerated. The few of Yeat's letters to Maud Gonne that have survived were scattered through old bundles of correspondence. The only two kept...

Iseult Gonne, daughter of Maud Gonne and the French politician and journalist Lucien Millevoye, attracted many admirers - among them distinguished authors such as W.