Synge and Anglo-Irish Literature
The island of Aran, which Edmund John Millington Synge (1871–1909) first visited in 1898, became a vital component in his work. It engendered his interest in Gaelic (which he learnt), and influenced the writing of his plays such as Riders to the Sea (1904), The Well of the Saints (1905), and The Playboy of the Western World (1907). He also wrote The Aran Islands (completed by 1901, but not published until 1907), a classic prose piece celebrating the social and cultural life of the islanders. This portrait of Synge is in Daniel Corkery's seminal work on Synge and Anglo-Irish literature.