Born with the last name Letts, it might not be too shocking that a significant part of WM Letts’s literary portfolio includes diaries, letters, and memoirs. What’s unexpected, however, is the near obscurity that shrouds the remarkable life and contributions of this figure, who was not only a poet during the war, but also worked as a dramatist, fiction writer, essayist, and author of children’s literature. This obscurity has persisted in spite of the resurgence of interest in overlooked female authors recently.
Winifred Mabel Letts (1882-1972), descendant of Thomas Letts (of Letts Diaries prior fame) and of Alexander James Ferrier (part of the wholesale fabric and haberdashery enterprise, Ferrier Pollock & Co, based at Powerscourt Town House situated away from Grafton Street), was born to Reverend Ernest Letts. He served as the rector of Newton Heath in Manchester and also acted as summer chaplain at the Holy Trinity Church located on Muckross Estate in Kerry, owned by the Herberts. Her mother, Mary Isabel Ferrier, hailed from Knockmaroon, situated just outside Phoenix Park’s gates. Knockmaroon, or “Paradise” as they referred to it, was their favoured holiday spot, offering an escape from their “smoky and somewhat bleak” Lancashire parish.
Having crossed mid-teens, Letts transitioned from a boarding school in the central part of England to Alexandra College in Dublin. Here, her academic pursuit included studying English and French language and literature, history, geography, and drawing. When her father passed away in 1904, the family shifted from Newton Heath to Blackrock, located in Co Dublin. Ireland’s expansive landscapes and its people’s frank demeanour seem to have invoked her creative flair. As a result, for the coming six decades, Letts’s works, which included poems, short stories, essays, children’s books, plays, and reviews, were continually featured in newspapers, periodicals, and by publishers and broadcasters.
Letts attended her initial performance at the Abbey Theatre, a highly controversial move as her own Protestant unionist community held the theatre in contempt, in January 1907. The Sea Knights, staged by Synge on that day, sparked her passion for playwriting, prompting her to write and submit The Eyes of the Blind. The drama was not only approved but had its premiere performance on Easter Monday, aligned with Deirdre by Yeats and Lady Gregory’s Spreading the News and The Rising of the Moon. Fast forward to October 1909, her other play, The Challenge, graced the stage. This accomplishment positioned Letts not just as the second lady playwright to have her work graced the Abbey Theatre but also one of the few women who witnessed the production of more than one of her pieces at the same venue. She had other sketches and plays which were spread through the radio or performed by non-professional groups. One of her documentary dramas in three scenes, Hamilton and Jones, saw it’s first performance at the Gate Theatre in July 1941.
During a 1969 interview, Letts expressed her indifference to the mundane chatter of drawing-room conversation, stating that it had neither charm nor melody. Instead, she claimed her insight sprang from “the backdoor”, meaning she drew her inspiration from patched conversations of vendors or vegetable delivery men. For instance, an informal conversation with a blackberry vendor from Glencullen sparked the idea for her published poem, Thim that Thravels on their Feet, which appeared in the Spectator in 1910. Following that, Letts was asked to compose a sequence of poems that CV Stanford could convert into melodies for Harry Plunket Greene. Some of her well-loved poems like A Soft Day, Tim, An Irish Terrier, and The Bold Unbiddable Child were first featured in the compilation of her poetry, Songs from Leinster (1913). Extracts from this compilation were adopted for the two Stanford cycles, A Fire of Turf and A Sheaf of Songs from Leinster, which were last performed as recently as the Stanford Centenary Series in March 2024 at the National Concert Hall. Subsequently, Letts published a second and third lyrical poetry anthology, respectively in 1926 and 1947.
Letts made a huge contribution in the first World War, initially serving as a voluntary nurse aid unit in Manchester prior to training at Baggot Street Hospital to become a masseuse, a role we now refer to as a physiotherapist. She penned influential war poetry that hit the market before collections from Sassoon, Owen, and Ledwidge. Initially, her poems uplifted and venerated the youthful soldiers heading to fight, despite the despair of their left-behind families. As the conflict endured, Letts started to reveal the physical and mental trauma suffered by these soldiers, scarcely recognized at the time, through poems such as To a Soldier in Hospital and What Reward?. Her empathetic depiction of a young soldier who “couldn’t face the German guns” in her poem, The Deserter, renders it one of the most poignant of all war poems. Two of her poetry collections, Hallow-e’en and Poems of the War and The Spires of Oxford and Other Poems, were published in 1916 and 1917.
In addition to composing poetry and drama, Letts authored essays, short stories, and six books for children (five of those were serialized and aired on radio). Letts also penned three religious books, a memoir named Knockmaroon and seven novels targeting young women who saw newfound freedom thanks to educational and work advancements. Her poems were employed by Elizabeth C Yeats for her Cuala Press cards and prints. One of these prints, St Brigid, featuring Letts’ verse and illustrated by her stepdaughter, Kathleen Verschoyle, is displayed in the Government Buildings.
Prior to her marriage in 1926 to William HF Verschoyle – a man 23 years her senior, a widower, who tragically lost two out of his three sons in World War I – Letts worked professionally as a masseuse. Initially, adjusting to urban life at 19 Fitzwilliam Square was tough for her but she cherished her time on the Verschoyle farms in Kilberry, Co. Kildare. She enjoyed the company of her step-grandson, great-nieces, godchildren, and the kids of their staff. Her life was vibrant with her active participation in organizations such as the Women Writers’ Club, PEN, Wild Flower Society, and multiple charities, including the Dublin Auxiliary of the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals (DSPCA), to which she contributed royalties and poems during their financial hardship.
After her husband passed away, Letts relocated to Kent in 1947 to live with her sisters. However, she permanently moved back to Ireland in 1953, acquiring the lovely Beech Cottage on Ballinclea Road, Killiney. President Michael D Higgins marked the 50th anniversary of her death in 1972 by attending a ceremony at Rathcoole Church of Ireland where her name was added to the Verschoyle gravestone.
Two generations on, recognition and memory of Letts are being acknowledged; she was a trailblazer as a poet, a novel dramatist, an attractive novelist and a skillful children’s book writer.
A biography about Letts, ‘Sing in the Quiet Places of my Heart’ by Bairbre O’Hogan, is available from South Dublin Libraries. Check out our Inside Politics podcast for top-tier political discourse and commentary.