Russell, George William, 1867-1935

George William Russell was born on April 10, 1867 in Lurgan, County Armagh, Ireland to Thomas and Marianne (Armstrong) Russell. The family moved to Dublin in 1878, and Russell attended Dr. Power’s School in Harrington Street and night classes at the Metropolitan School of Art, before entering Rathmines School, which he left in 1884. He would later recall experiencing visions and trances during his youth, experiences which would cement his life-long interest in the supernatural. Those visions also brought about his pen name, “AE”, which was derived from “Aeon”, the first sound in the universe. Russell’s first book of poetry, Homeward: Songs by the Way, was published in 1894, influenced by his fascination with the occult. In 1897, he published his second collection, entitled The Earth Breath.

In 1898, Russell married Violet North, with whom he went on to have two sons, Bryan (born 1899) and Diarmuid Conor (born 1902). That same year, he began working for the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IOAS). In 1898, Russell was appointed as the organization’s Dublin-based secretary. He continued to write poetry and literary reviews, and his play, Deirdre, was produced in 1902. In 1903, Russell accepted the joint vice-presidency of the Irish National Theatre Society. He published a further two collections of poetry, The Divine Vision and Other Poems (1904) and The Mask of Apollo and Other Stories (1905).

Russell grew increasingly political in the early twentieth century, and he began to publish nationalist essays and poems. Despite his political engagement, he was surprised by the Easter Rising in 1916. Russell was a pacifist, and although he supported Irish independence, never fully embraced radical republicanism. He supported the Free Staters during the Civil War (1922-1923). In 1923, he assumed editorship of The Irish Statesman, continuing in this role until the journal closed in 1930. Russell left Ireland for London in 1933, disenchanted by the Free State and grieving for his wife, who died in 1932. Russell died in London on July 17, 1935.