Katharine Tynan

Biography Tynan was born the fifth of twelve children of Andrew Cullen Tynan, a prosperous farmer and cattle trader and later a Dublin alderman for the Irish Parliamentary Party, and Elizabeth Tynan (née Reilly). She grew up in Whitehall, Clondalkin and educated at the Dominican St Catherine's, a convent school in Drogheda.

Her poetry was first published in 1875. Tynan went on to play a major part in Dublin literary circles, until she married and moved to England; later she lived at Claremorris, County Mayo when her husband was a magistrate from 1914 until 1919.

She worked for the Ladies' Land League, run by Anna Parnell, before turning to journalism, expressing her ardent support of Charles Stewart Parnell and Ireland. Her first volume of poems, Louise de la Vallière and other poems was published in 1885 and is still in print.

From June 1885 when they first met until around the time of her marriage in 1893, Tynan was a close associate of and regular correspondent with William Butler Yeats (who may have proposed marriage and been rejected). Tynan was also later a correspondent of Francis Ledwidge. She is said to have written over 100 novels. Her Collected Poems appeared in 1930; she also wrote five autobiographical volumes.

Tynan died in Wimbledon, London aged 72, and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.

Publications

Poetry Louise de la Vallière and Other Poems (1885) Shamrocks (1887) Ballads & Lyrics (1891) Irish Love-Songs (1892) Cuckoo Songs (1894) Poems (1901) Innocencies: A Book of Verse (1905) New Poems (1911) Irish Poems (1913) The Flower of Peace (1914) Flower of Youth (1915) The Holy War (1916) Late Songs (1917) Evensong (1922) Twilight Songs (1927)

Fiction A Cluster of Nuts, Being Sketches Among My Own People (1894) Miracle Plays - Our Lord’s Coming and Childhood (1895) The Land of Mist and Mountain (1895) The Way of a Maid (1895) Three Fair Maids, or the Burkes of Derrymore (c.1895) later Illustrated by G. Demain Hammond An Isle in the Water (1896) Any Woman (1896) Oh, What a Plague is Love! (1896) The Handsome Brandons: A Story for Girls (1899), illustrated by G. D. Hammond The Dear Irish Girl (1899) Her Father's Daughter (1900) A Daughter of the Fields (1900) The Adventures of Carlo (1900), illustrated by E. A. Cubitt A King's Woman (1902) Love of Sisters (1902) The Great Captain: A Story of the Days of Sir Walter Raleigh (1902) The Golden Lily (1902) A Girl of Galway (1902) The Handsome Quaker, and Other Stories (1902) A Red, Red Rose (1902) The Luck of the Fairfaxes (1904) A Daughter of Kings (1905) For the White Rose (1905) A Little Book for Mary Gill's Friends (1905) The Story of Bawn (1906) The Yellow Domino (1906) Book of Memory (1906) Dick Pentreath (1906) The Rhymed Life of St Patrick (1907), illustrated by Lyndsay Symington A Little Book of XXIV Carols (1907) Father Mathew (1908), biography of Theobald Mathew Experiences (1908) A Union of Hearts (1908) The House of the Crickets (1908) Ireland (1909) A Little Book for John O'Mahony's Friends (1909) The Book of Flowers (1909), with Frances Maitland Mary Gray (1909) The House of the Secret (1910) Betty Carew (1910) Freda (1910) The Story of Cecelia (1911) Princess Katharine (1911) Heart o’ Gold, or The Little Princess (1912) A Midsummer Rose (1913) A Mesalliance (1913) The Daughter of the Manor (1914), illustrated by John Campbell The Flower of Peace (1914) A Shameful Inheritance (1914) A Little Radiant Girl (1914), illustrated by John Campbell Mary Beaudesert, V. S. (1915) The Curse of Castle Eagle (1915) The House of the Foxes (1915) Lord Edward: A Study in Romance (1916) Maxims from the Writing of Katharine Tynan (1916), edited by Elsie E. Morton Margery Dawe (1916), illustrated by Frank E. Wiles The Sad Years (1918), tribute to Dora Sigerson Herb o’ Grace: Poems in War-Time (1918) The Honourable Molly (1919) The Man from Australia: A Passionate Pilgrim (1919) Denys the Dreamer (1920) The House (1920) Bitha's Wonderful Year (1922) A Mad Marriage (1922) White Ladies (1922) The House on the Bogs (1922) Pat, the Adventurer (1923) The House of Doom (1924) Life in the Occupied Area (1925) The Briar Bush Maid (1926) The Wild Adventure (1927) The Respectable Lady (1927) The Face in the Picture (1927) Haroun of London (1927) Castle Perilous (1928) The House in the Forest (1928) The Rich Man (1929) The River (1929) The Admirable Simmons (1930) The Squire's Sweetheart (1930) Denise the Daughter (1930) The Forbidden Way (1931) Philippa's Lover (1931) A Lonely Maid (1931) The Story of Our Lord (1932) The Other Man (1932) The Pitiful Lady (1932) An International Marriage (1933) The House of Dreams (1934)

Autobiography Twenty-Five Years: Reminiscences (1913) The Middle Years: A Memoir (1916) The Years of the Shadow (1919) The Wandering Years: A Memoir (1922) Memories (1924)

Anthologies The Cabinet of Irish Literature (1906), editor, expansion of work by Charles Read in four volumes Twenty-One Poems, selected by W. B. Yeats (Dun Emer Press, 1907) The Poems of Katharine Tynan (1963), edited by Monk Gibbon The Wild Harp (1913), poetry anthology, editor, illustrated by C. M. Watts Collected Poems (1930)