W. B. Yeats

Autobiographies

1926. Macmillan Papermac, 1980.

From 1867, when he was two, to 1872 the poet lived at 23 Fitzroy Road, Primrose Hill, but there are no childhood memories of the hill or the park in this book. An anecdote from the late 1880's is about the painter Jack Nettleship, who had 'certain ascetic ambitions, very much like my own'. Nettleship told him, the other night I was arrested by a policeman - was walking around Regent's Park bare-footed to keep the flesh under - good sort of thing to do''. He was carrying his boots and suspected of being a burglar. The policeman accepted half a crown and made him promise to put them on again before he met the next policeman.