Ella Young | |
|---|---|
 Photo portrait, 1930 | |
| Born | (1867-12-26)26 December 1867 Fenagh,County Antrim, Ireland |
| Died | 23 July 1956(1956-07-23) (aged 88) Oceano, California, U.S. |
| Occupation |
|
| Nationality | Irish American |
| Alma mater | Royal University of Ireland Trinity College Dublin |
| Period | Modernist |
| Subject | Celtic mythology |
| Literary movement | Irish Literary Revival |
| Notable works | Celtic Wonder-Tales
|
Ella Young (26 December 1867 – 23 July 1956) was an Irish poet andCelticmythologist active in theGaelic andCeltic Revival literary movement of the late 19th and early 20th century.[1] Born in Ireland, Young was an author of poetry and children's books. She emigrated from Ireland to the United States in 1925 as a temporary visitor and lived in California. For five years she gave speaking tours on Celtic mythology at American universities, and in 1931 she was involved in a publicized immigration controversy when she attempted to become a citizen.
Young held a chair in Irish Myth and Lore at theUniversity of California, Berkeley for seven years. At Berkeley she was known for her colorful and lively persona, giving lectures while wearing the purple robes of aDruid, expounding on legendary creatures such asfairies andelves, and praising the benefits oftalking to trees. Her encyclopedic knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject of Celtic mythology attracted and influenced many of her friends and won her a wide audience among writers and artists in California, including poetsRobinson Jeffers andElsa Gidlow, philosopherAlan Watts, photographerAnsel Adams, and composerHarry Partch, who set several of her poems to music.[2]
Later in life she served as the "godmother" and inspiration for theDunites,[3] a group of artists living in the dunes ofSan Luis Obispo County. She retired to the town ofOceano, where she died at the age of 88.
Born in Fenagh,Cullybackey,[4]County Antrim, she grew up inDublin in a Protestant family and attended theRoyal University. Contrary to some sources, she is not related to the scholarRose Maud Young. She later received her master's degree atTrinity College, Dublin.[5] Her interest inTheosophy led her to become an early member of theHermetic Society, the Dublin branch of theTheosophical Society, where she met writerKenneth Morris. Her acquaintance with "Æ" (George William Russell) resulted in becoming one of his select group of protégés known as the "singing birds". Russell had been her near neighbour, growing up on Grosvenor Square.[6] Young's nationalist sentiments and her friendship withPatrick Pearse gave her a supporting role in theEaster Rising; as a member ofCumann na mBan,[7] she smuggled rifles and other supplies in support ofRepublican forces.[8] Young's first volume of verse, titled simplyPoems, was published in 1906, and her first work of Irish folklore,The Coming of Lugh, was published in 1909. Her close friend, Irish revolutionary and actor,Maud Gonne illustrated bothLugh and Young's first story collection,Celtic Wonder-Tales (1910). Although she continued to write poetry, she became known best for her telling of traditional Irish legends. She also had a series of fairy experiences, which she recounted in the press.[9]
Young first came to the United States in the 1920s to visit friends, traveling toConnecticut to meetMary Colum (Molly) and her husband, Irish poetPadraic Colum.[10] Celtic studies scholarWilliam Whittingham Lyman Jr. left theUniversity of California, Berkeley, in 1922 and Young was hired to fill the post in 1924.[11] She immigrated to the United States in 1925; according to Kevin Starr[12] she "had been briefly detained at Ellis Island as a probable mental case when the authorities learned that she believed in the existence of fairies, elves, and pixies".[13] At the time, people suspected to have a mental illness were denied admission to the United States.
While based in California, Young began speaking at various universities in 1925, lecturing first atColumbia University[14] and then atSmith College,Vassar College, andMills College.[15] According to Norm Hammond,
Wherever she went, she was received enthusiastically, especially by the young people of America. They loved this white-haired lady with the eyes of a seer that appeared to be lighted from within. She spoke with a melodious voice; when she spoke everyone listened. She had a thin, wispy quality that made her appear as the apparition of the very spirits she described. Indeed, her skin had an almost translucent quality.[16]
Young lived inSausalito in the mid-1920s.[17] She was the James D. Phelan Lecturer in Irish Myth and Lore at the University of California, Berkeley, for approximately a decade.[18]
As of 1931 she had not received legal immigration status;Charles Erskine Scott Wood advised her to go toVictoria, British Columbia, in order to restart the process toward American citizenship. Her application for re-entry to the U.S. was declined for months on the grounds that she might become a "public charge".[19]
In 1926 Ella Young lectured atCarmel-by-the-Sea, California. She was hosted for a fortnight by the famous artist John O'Shea and socialized with the poetRobinson Jeffers and with the "radical Socialists"Sinclair Lewis,Ella Winter,Upton Sinclair, andLincoln Steffens. Two years later inThe Carmelite she published her somber poem memorializing the suicide of local artist Ira Remsen. In 1934 Young penned an enigmatic review of O'Shea's exhibition of charcoals at San Francisco's prestigiousPalace of the Legion of Honor. O'Shea's celebrated portrait of Young was exhibited in 1940 and 1945 at the Carmel Art Association.[20] Young believed thatPoint Lobos near Carmel was the psychic center of the Pacific Coast and "when the force of Lobos is released, a great thing will happen in America—but Lobos is not ready to make friends yet."[21]
In 1928 Young's bookThe Wonder-Smith and His Son, illustrated byBoris Artzybasheff, became aNewbery Honor Book (runner-up). During the 1920s she occasionally visitedHalcyon, California, a Theosophical colony nearSan Luis Obispo. While living in a cabin behindJohn Varian's house there, Young finished writingThe Tangle-Coated Horse and Other Tales, a 1930 Newbery Honor Book.[22] In Halcyon her eclectic circle of friends includedAnsel Adams, whom she had first met in 1928 or 1929, in San Francisco through their mutual friendAlbert M. Bender.[23] She traveled with Adams and his wife Virginia toSanta Fe, New Mexico, in 1929, spending time with friends, visiting artists at theTaos art colony, and staying withMabel Dodge Luhan.[24] InTaos, Young also visited withGeorgia O'Keeffe.[25] A photograph of Young and Virginia Adams appears in Ansel Adams's autobiography. Adams recalls that Young and fellow writerMary Hunter Austin did not get along very well together but that conservationist Dorothy Erskine was one of Young's good friends.[23]
In 1932The Unicorn with Silver Shoes was released, illustrated byRobert Lawson.[26] Young published her autobiography,Flowering Dusk: Things Remembered Accurately and Inaccurately in 1945. Later, she found particular affinity in theCalifornia Redwoods After battling cancer, Young was found dead in her Oceano home on 23 July 1956. She was cremated, and in October her ashes were scattered in a redwood grove.[27] A grave marker is located in the Santa Maria Cemetery District,Santa Maria, California. Young left the bulk of her estate to theSave the Redwoods League.[28]
Writers John Matthews and Denise Sallee released an annotated anthology of Young's work in 2012,At the Gates of Dawn: A Collection of Writings by Ella Young. Writer Rose Murphy released a biography of Young in 2008.[29] The South County Historical Society of San Luis Obispo County, California, is active in the research and preservation of the history of the Dunites and Ella Young.[30] An archive of her papers is currently held by theCharles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections at theUniversity of California, Los Angeles.[31]
According toJohn Clute, the so-called tales are "based on Irish material" whereasThe Unicorn is "an original tale, though resembling both[Kenneth] Morris andJames Stephens in its telling of the trip of an Irish hero to the Afterlife".[35] One library catalogue summary of the 1988 selection, perhaps by its publisher Floris Books, implies that "Young's classic re-telling of Celtic stories" comprises all four earlier collections.[34] According to Ruth Berman,The Unicorn is "her original fantasy".[26] As of 1999 it was long out-of-print butCeltic Wonder Tales,The Wonder-Smith and His Son, andThe Tangle-Coated Horse were republished in 1991 by Floris Books and Anthroposophic Press.[26]
Flowering Dusk was republished with permission of the Ella Young Literary Estate in 2025 in a limited edition of 300 byHolythorn Press.[36]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
