National Library of Ireland marks 100th anniversary of WB Yeats' A Vision with landmark digitisation project

This newly digitised material offers a new and unique insight into the mind and creative process of the Nobel Laureate. The digitised documents are now freely accessibly to the public for the first time via the NLI catalogue.

First published in 1926 for private subscribers only, A Vision represents Yeats' personal theory of how people, history and the world evolve through recurring cycles and patterns. Bringing together many of the philosophical, spiritual and symbolic ideas that influenced his poetry and other writings, this work offers a distinctive framework for understanding human experience, creativity and historic change.

A Vision is deeply influenced by a series of automatic writing sessions conducted by Yeats and his wife, Georgie Hyde-Lees. In these sessions Georgie would record words, drawings and symbols that occurred to her while she believed herself to be guided by spiritual sources. Drawing on these sessions and his lifelong interest in mysticism, symbolism and the occult, Yeats developed a complex system that explores the relationship between reality, imagination, history, and the role of the artist. 

The newly digitised collection at the NLI traces the evolution of Yeats’ theory, from early manuscripts and notebooks up to the revised 1937 edition of A Vision, offering a unique insight into the development of the most complex and ambitious work of Yeats’ writings. 

Dr Audrey Whitty, Director of the National Library of Ireland, said:

“One hundred years after the publication of A Vision, we are proud to share this extraordinary material from our collections. Few writers have set out so completely the myths, metaphors, symbols and images by which they define their life’s work. In making this series of manuscripts and other papers available digitally, it opens up a world of possibilities for the next generation of students and new scholarship to explore the world of Yeats and renew our understanding of this pivotal figure in modern world literature” 

Digitisation of the collection 

To make this collection accessible to the public, teams at the NLI have been working to conserve, catalogue and digitise the collection since last year. 

The Yeats Occult Papers contain a wide variety of items, including notebooks, typescripts, galley proofs and loose sheets of paper, many of which are fragile due to the age and nature of the material. Conservation work carefully balanced the need to repair and preserve the material for digitisation, while retaining evidence of how the documents were created, used and revised over time. This process was followed by high-resolution scanning and careful digitisation of the material at the NLI onsite digital studio.  

WB Yeats collection at the National Library of Ireland 

The National Library of Ireland holds the largest collection of WB Yeats books, papers and manuscript drafts in the world, including the poet's personal library. The collection provides an unparalleled record of Yeats' intellectual development and creative practice. As a long-time visitor to the NLI's Reading Room, Yeats himself was deeply connected to the institution that today serves as the principal repository of his literary and archival legacy.

Celebrating A Century of A Vision

As part of the launch, the NLI will be hosting a series of free public events on 22nd and 23rd September aimed at demystifying A Vision and making this challenging and important text accessible to new audiences. The programme, led by Dr Neil Mann, an independent scholar who specialises in the esoteric writings of Yeats, includes talks, workshops, and presentations that will offer insights into the thoughts, beliefs, and influences behind A Vision and illustrate the significance of this work in understanding Yeats’ wider body of work. 

Also included in the programme is a special guided afternoon tour of the Yeats: The Life and Works of William Butler Yeats exhibition. This monthly tour explores the people, events and other influences that would lead Yeats to write A Vision.

Full programme here

ENDS