George William Russell

Russell, George [William] (pseudonym ‘AE’ from Greek ‘Æon’) (1867-1935), poet, mystic, social reformer; born in Lurgan, Co. Armagh. The family moved to Dublin in 1878, and he was educated at Rathmines School and the Metropolitan School of Art, where he met W. B. Yeats. From 1884, when he began to experience waking visions, he became increasingly involved in spiritual research. His first collection of poetry, Homeward: Songs by the Way (1894), contained ethereal poems, intent on evoking spiritual and contemplative states. His other collections continued more or less in this vein, and include The Earth Breath and Other Poems (1897), The Divine Vision and Other Poems (1904), and Collected Poems (1913). In 1897 Russell joined Sir Horace Plunkett's Irish Agricultural Organization Society (IAOS), supervising the setting-up of co-operative banks in the west of Ireland. His version of Deirdre (1902), performed by the Abbey Theatre's precursor, had Constance Markievicz in the title-role. He edited The Irish Homestead, the journal of the IAOS, 1905-23, using its columns to encourage many young writers, including Padraic Colum, Seumas O'Sullivan, and Eva Gore-Booth. In ‘On Behalf of Some Irishmen Not Followers of Tradition’, he attacked the deployment of myth to enlist nationalist feelings, a poem fiercely criticized by Joseph Mary Plunkett in 1913. In that year he supported the Dublin Strikers during the Lock-out [see James Larkin]. The outbreak of the First World War seemed to confirm man's severance from the sources of wisdom, and Gods of War, With Other Poems (1915) challenges the prevailing war fever. The National Being (1916) presents a synthesis of his ideas on non-militant nationalism, spiritual concerns, and idealistic principles. Other prose works include The Candle of Vision (1918), a collection of essays describing his inner life. Two novels, The Interpreters (1922) and The Avatars (1933), outline his spiritual message. In 1922 he became editor of The Irish Statesman, which incorporated The Irish Homestead, and continued in that role until 1930. He went on writing poems and prose, publishing collections such as Enchantment and Other Poems (1930) and The House of the Titans and Other Poems (1934). The prose work, Song and Its Fountains (1932), continues the enquiry begun in The Candle of Vision. Escaping from a ‘nation run by louts’ he went to live in England after 1933, first in London and then in Bournemouth.

Bibliography

Henry Summerfield, That Myriad-Minded Man: A Biography of G. W. Russell, ‘AE’ (1975).

Irish poet, essayist, and mystic, who wrote under the pseudonym "AE." Born April 10, 1867, at Lurgan, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, his family moved to Dublin when he was ten, where he was able to attend Rathmines School. He had a natural talent for painting and attended the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin, where he met William Butler Yeats, who introduced him to Theosophy. At that time, Russell earned his living by working as a clerk and soon began contributing poems and articles to The Irish Theosophist.

Theosophical teachings and the literature of Hindu philosophy opened his mind to heightened consciousness of Celtic myth and nature spirits. He painted visionary pictures of the Irish landscape.

He felt a strange impulse to call one of his paintings "The Birth of Aeon," a Gnostic concept, and signed one of his articles "AEON." A proof reader rendered this as "AE-?" and thereafter Russell used the initials for his poems. In 1894 he allowed some of his poems to be published as a book, Homeward: Songs of the Way, and the response thrust him to the fore of Ireland's literary community. In 1913 the first edition of his collected poems was published.

He also wrote many political articles and became organizer for the Irish Agriculture Organization, successfully combining his mystical visions with everyday practical tasks, in the spirit of the ancient Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, a work which greatly impressed him. He edited the Irish Homestead for the Organization from 1906 to 1923. In 1923 he became the editor of the Irish Statesman in which he tried to steer a moderate course for the newly founded Irish Free States. He gave expression to his political idealism in two novels, The Interpreters (1922) and The Avatars (1932). His major mystical book was The Candle of Vision (1918). His book Song and Its Fountains (1932) developed the mystical meditations of Candle of Vision and spoke of poetry as "oracles breathed from inner to outer being." The Avatars: A Futurist Fantasy (1933) indicated his debt to Hindu philosophy. Russell died July 17, 1935.

Sources:

AE [George Russell]. The Candle of Vision. 1918. Reprint, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1965.

——. Homeward: Songs of the Way. Portland, Maine: T. B. Mosher, 1895.

——. The Interpreters. New York: Macmillian, 1922.

——. Song and Its Foundations. New York; London, Macmillian, 1932.

de Zirkoff, Boris, comp. "General Bibliography with Selected Biographical Notes." In Collected Writings. Vol XII. by H. P. Blavatsky. Wheaton, Ill.: Theosophical Publishing House,1980.

Denson, Alan. Printed writings of George W. Russell (AE): A Bibliography. London: Northwestern University Press, 1961.

Eglinton, John. A Memoir of AE: George William Russell. London: Macmillian, 1937.

Merchant, Francis. A.E.: An Irish Promethean. Columbia, S.C.: Benedict College Press, 1954.

Quotes:

"Any relations in a social order will endure, if there is infused into them some of that spirit of human sympathy which qualifies life for immortality."

"And see the confluence of dreamsThat clashed together in our night,One river born of many streamsRoll in one blaze of blinding light!"

Not to be confused with George William Erskine Russell (1853 - 1919).

Æ
George William Russell
Born	10 April 1867(1867-04-10) Lurgan, County Armagh, Ireland
Died	17 July 1935 (aged 68) Bournemouth, United Kingdom
Nationality	Irish
Other names	Æ, Æon
Citizenship	United Kingdom, Irish Free State
Education	Rvd. Edward Power's school, 3 Harrington Street, Dublin
Alma mater	Metropolitan School of Art
Occupation	Author, poet, editor, critic, painter
Home town	Dublin
Known for	Poetry, painting

George William Russell (10 April 1867 – 17 July 1935) who wrote under the pseudonym Æ (sometimes written AE or A.E.), was an Irish nationalist, writer, editor, critic, poet, and painter. He was also a mystical writer, and centre of a group of followers of theosophy in Dublin, for many years.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Notes 3 Poetry 4 References 5 External links

Biography

Russell was born in Lurgan, County Armagh. His family moved to Dublin when he was eleven. He was educated at Rathmines School and the Metropolitan School of Art, where he began a lifelong friendship with William Butler Yeats.^[1] He started working as a draper’s clerk, then worked many years for the Irish Agricultural Organization Society (IAOS), an agricultural co-operative movement founded by Horace Plunkett in 1894. The two came together in 1897 when the co-operative movement was eight years old. Plunkett needed an able organiser and W. B. Yeats suggested Russell, who became Assistant Secretary of the IAOS.

He was an able lieutenant and travelled extensively throughout Ireland as a spokesman for the society, mainly responsible for developing the credit societies and establishing co-operative banks in the south and west of the country whose numbers rose to 234 by 1910. The pair made a good team, with each gaining much from the association with the other.^[2]

Russell was editor from 1905-1923 of The Irish Homestead, the journal of the IAOS, and infused it with the vitality that made it famous half the world over. His gifts as a writer and publicist gained him a wide influence in the cause of agricultural co-operation.^[1] He was also editor of the The Irish Statesman from 15 September 1923 until 12 April 1930. He used the pseudonym "AE", or more properly, "Æ". This derived from an earlier Æ'on signifying the lifelong quest of man, subsequently shortened.

His first book of poems, Homeward: Songs by the Way (1894), established him in what was known as the Irish Literary Revival, where Æ met the young James Joyce in 1902 and introduced him to other Irish literary figures, including William Butler Yeats, to whom he was close. He appears as a character in the "Scylla and Charybdis" episode of Joyce's Ulysses, where he dismisses Stephen's theories on Shakespeare. His collected poems appeared in 1913, with a second edition in 1926.

Bathers by Æ

His house in Rathgar Avenue in Dublin became a meeting-place at the time for everyone interested in the economic and artistic future of Ireland.^[1] His interests were wide-ranging; he became a theosophist and wrote extensively on politics and economics, while continuing to paint and write poetry.^[1] Æ claimed to be a clairvoyant, able to view various kinds of spiritual beings, which he illustrated in paintings and drawings. The keynote of his work may be found in a motto from the Bhagavadgita prefixed to one of his earlier poems I am Beauty itself among beautiful things.^[1]

He moved to England after his wife’s death in 1932 and died in Bournemouth in 1935.^[1] He is buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin.

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Boylan, Henry, A Dictionary of Irish Biography, p. 384, 3rd. edit., (1998) ISBN 0-7171-2507-6
2. ^ AE and Sir Horace Plunkett J.J.Byrne (The Shaping of Modern Ireland (1960) Conor-Cruise O'Brien) pp. 152-157

Poetry

• Homeward Songs by the Way (Dublin: Whaley 1894)
• The Earth Breath and Other Poems (NY&London: John Lane 1896)
• The Nuts of Knowledge (Dublin: Dun Emer Press, 1903)
• The Divine Vision and Other Poems (London: Macmillan; NY: Macmillan 1904)
• By Still Waters (Dublin: Dun Emer Press 1906)
• Deirdre (Dublin: Maunsel 1907)
• Collected Poems (London: Macmillan 1913) (2nd. edit. 1926)
• Gods of War, with Other Poems (Dub, priv. 1915)
• Imaginations and Reveries (Dub&London: Maunsel 1915)
• The Candle of Vision (London: Macmillan 1918)
• Autobiography of a Mystic (Gerrards Cross, 1975), 175pp.;
• Midsummer Eve (NY: Crosby Gaige 1928)
• Enchantment and Other Poems (NY: Fountain; London: Macmillan 1930);
• Vale and Other Poems (London: Macmillan 1931)
• Songs and Its Fountains (London: Macmillan 1932)
• The House of Titans and Other Poems (London: Macmillan 1934)
• Selected Poems (London: Macmillan 1935).

References

• Allan, Nicholas: George Russel (AE) and the New Ireland 1905-30, Four Courts Press Dublin (2003) ISBN 1-85182-691-2

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: George William Russell

Wikisource has original text related to this article: George William Russell

• Brief biography
• Chronology of Russell's life
• The Candle of Vision (1918)
• Collected Poems by Æ (1913)
• Russell at the Online Books Page (University of Pennsylvania)
• Works by George William Russell at Project Gutenberg
• Works by George William Russell at Project Gutenberg Australia
• A. E. at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Index entry for A.E. at Poets' Corner

Persondata
NAME	Russell, George William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	AE
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Irish poet
DATE OF BIRTH	1867-04-10
PLACE OF BIRTH
DATE OF DEATH	1935-07-17
PLACE OF DEATH

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)