Ella Young

Ella Young was an Irish poet and Celtic mythologist active in the Gaelic and Celtic Revival literary movement of the late 19th and early 20th century. Born in Ireland into a Protestant family, 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.

She grew up in Dublin and attended the Royal University. She later received her master's degree at Trinity College, Dublin. Her acquaintance with "Æ" (George William Russell), who had been her near neighbour growing up on Grosvenor Square, resulted in Young becoming one of his select group of protégés known as the "singing birds." Young's first volume of verse, titled simply Poems, was published in 1906, and her first work of Irish folklore, The Coming of Lugh, was published in 1909. Although she continued to write poetry, she became known best for her telling of traditional Irish legends.

Young was the James D. Phelan Lecturer in Irish Myth and Lore at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was known for her colorful and lively persona, giving lectures while wearing the purple robes of a Druid, expounding on legendary creatures such as fairies and elves, and praising the benefits of talking 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 poets Robinson Jeffers and Elsa Gidlow, philosopher Alan Watts, photographer Ansel Adams, and composer Harry Partch, who set several of her poems to music.

Source: Wikipedia