O'Connor is a young writer struggling to find his place and his voice in a profoundly changed Ireland. Gradually, he begins to establish a formidable reputation. Guests of the Nation and The Saint and Mary Kate belong to this period. The excitement of the Irish literary renaissance is made immediate as O'Connor tells of his friend the poet George Russell, who was the first to publish his work, and of his participation in the triumphs and rivalries of the Abbey Theatre. Here, beautifully rendered, are playwrights Lady Gregory, J. M. Synge, Lennox Robinson, and Sean O'Casey. Central to the book--as he was to O'Connor's life and work--is the complex and majestic figure of William Butler Yeats.

The memoir ends with Yeats's death and with it O'Connor's realization that he can no longer divide his talent between his job and his passion. He begins, at last, his life as a writer.