Ella Young (26 December 1867 – 23 July 1956) was an Irish poet and Celtic mythology mythologist active in the Gaelic revival and Celtic Revival literary movement of the late 19th and early 20th century. Born in Ireland, Young was an author of poetry and children's books. She emigrated from Ireland to the United States in 1925 as a temporary visitor and lived in California. For five years she gave speaking tours on Celtic mythology at American universities, and in 1931 she was involved in a publicized immigration controversy when she attempted to become a citizen.
Young held a chair in Irish Myth and Lore at the University of California, Berkeley for seven years. At Berkeley she was known for her colorful and lively persona, giving lectures while wearing the purple robes of a Druid, expounding on legendary creatures such as fairies and elves, and praising the benefits of Tree worship. Her encyclopedic knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject of Celtic mythology attracted and influenced many of her friends and won her a wide audience among writers and artists in California, including poets Robinson Jeffers and Elsa Gidlow, philosopher Alan Watts, photographer Ansel Adams, and composer Harry Partch, who set several of her poems to music.
Later in life she served as the "godmother" and inspiration for the Dunites,Hammond 1992, pp. 37–38. a group of artists living in the dunes of San Luis Obispo County. She retired to the town of Oceano, where she died at the age of 88.
While based in California, Young began speaking at various universities in 1925, lecturing first at Columbia UniversityWalsh 2009, p. 75. and then at Smith College, Vassar College, and Mills College. According to Norm Hammond,
Wherever she went, she was received enthusiastically, especially by the young people of America. They loved this white-haired lady with the eyes of a seer that appeared to be lighted from within. She spoke with a melodious voice; when she spoke everyone listened. She had a thin, wispy quality that made her appear as the apparition of the very spirits she described. Indeed, her skin had an almost translucent quality.Hammond 1992, p. 29.
Young lived in Sausalito in the mid-1920s.Lyman 1973, p. 65. She was the James D. Phelan Lecturer in Irish Myth and Lore at the University of California, Berkeley, for approximately a decade.Walsh 2009 says she held the position for seven years, but the Celtic Studies Program at UCB says it was ten years.
As of 1931 she had not received legal immigration status; Charles Erskine Scott Wood advised her to go to Victoria, British Columbia, in order to restart the process toward American citizenship. Her application for re-entry to the U.S. was declined for months on the grounds that she might become a "public charge".Letter to the editor from C.E.S. Wood, The Saturday Review of Literature, 14 March 1931, p. 668.
In 1926 Ella Young lectured at Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. She was hosted for a fortnight by the famous artist John O'Shea and socialized with the poet Robinson Jeffers and with the "radical Socialists" Sinclair Lewis, Ella Winter, Upton Sinclair, and Lincoln Steffens. Two years later in The Carmelite she published her somber poem memorializing the suicide of local artist Ira Remsen. In 1934 Young penned an enigmatic review of O'Shea's exhibition of charcoals at San Francisco's prestigious Palace of the Legion of Honor. O'Shea's celebrated portrait of Young was exhibited in 1940 and 1945 at the Carmel Art Association.
In 1932 The Unicorn with Silver Shoes was released, illustrated by Robert Lawson. Young published her autobiography, Flowering Dusk: Things Remembered Accurately and Inaccurately in 1945. Later, she found particular affinity in the California Redwoods After battling cancer, Young was found dead in her Oceano home on 23 July 1956. She was cremated, and in October her ashes were scattered in a redwood grove.The funeral ceremony is described by W. W. Lyman in Part 2 of " W.W. Lyman Talks About Ella Young ", Dunes Collaborative. A grave marker is located in the Santa Maria Cemetery District, Santa Maria, California. Young left the bulk of her estate to the Save the Redwoods League.Last Will and Testament of Ella Young, registry # 8660, County Clerk's Office, County of San Luis Obispo 1956
According to John Clute, the so-called tales are "based on Irish material" whereas The Unicorn is "an original tale, though resembling both [Kenneth Morris]] and James Stephens in its telling of the trip of an Irish hero to the Afterlife". One library catalogue summary of the 1988 selection, perhaps by its publisher Floris Books, implies that "Young's classic re-telling of Celtic stories" comprises all four earlier collections. According to Ruth Berman, The Unicorn is "her original fantasy". As of 1999 it was long out-of-print but Celtic Wonder Tales, The Wonder-Smith and His Son, and The Tangle-Coated Horse were republished in 1991 by Floris Books and Anthroposophic Press.
Legacy
See also: "Ella Young, Irish mystic and rebel; from literary Dublin to the American West" Reference & Research Book News (2008); Lowery, Robert. "Irish-(North) America". Irish Literary Supplement 28.2 (2009): 28. The South County Historical Society of San Luis Obispo County, California, is active in the research and preservation of the history of the Dunites and Ella Young.
See for example:
An archive of her papers is currently held by the Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections at the University of California, Los Angeles."Ella Young Papers, 1900–1956". California Digital Library.
Selected publications
Poetry
Fiction
Nonfiction
Flowering Dusk was republished with permission of the Ella Young Literary Estate in 2025 in a limited edition of 300 by Holythorn Press.
See also
External links
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