Part 12 - Circular letter from Seán O’Faoláin

The Irish Academy of Letters was founded by the poet William Butler Yeats and the writer George Bernard Shaw in 1932. The objective of the Academy was to reward creative literary achievement in Ireland and to organise writers to oppose censorship. As noted in O’Faolain’s letter, Yeats had raised funds to support the work of the Academy while on a lecture tour in the United States in 1933. By 1940, however, ‘world conditions’ had reduced the organisation’s financial patronage which in turn had curtailed the amount of practical support provided to young Irish writers. As the letter attests, membership of the Irish Academy of Letters was exclusive and included many renowned cultural figures such as Eugene O’Neill, Oliver St. John Gogarty, Alice Milligan, Padraic Colum, Frank O’Connor, Lennox Robinson, Brinsley Macnamara, Ernie O’Malley, and St John Greer Ervine. Notably, James Joyce was also invited to join but declined.