Conrad A. Balliet, assisted by Christine Mawhinney, W. B. Yeats: A Census of the Manuscripts (New York and London: Garland, 1990) xxv + 520 pp.

Abstract

Setting to order a house through which a storm has run takes time out of keeping with the duration of the storm itself. Yeats once wrote a play in little more than a fortnight. Shakespeare’s genius was such that “sometimes it was necessary he should be stopped”. Ben Jonson, like Yeats, a deliberative writer, penned his best comedy in five weeks “From his own hand, without coadjutor, / Novice, journeyman, or tutor” — and, of course, without quick titles, Pro Data software, and vax 11/750 computer. Surely, the time has come to take inventory after the multitude of disturbances have passed which the (revised) Wade enumerates. In face of impossible odds against success, Conrad Balliet and various student assistants (generously acknowledged) have compiled the first really comprehensive list of existing Yeats manuscripts, wherever they may be. They have done so, moreover, with amazing speed: a mere five years from conception to print! Would that another two years had been added to verify descriptions, at least those pertaining to the major collections.