Born: 10 February 1882, United Kingdom
Died: 7 June 1972
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: W. M. Letts
This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Diarmaid Ferriter. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Letts, Winifred Mabel (1882–1972), novelist and playwright, was born in Salford, Lancashire, on 10 February 1882, the youngest daughter of Reverend Ernest Letts, rector of Newton Heath, Manchester, and his wife Mary Isabel (née Ferrier). She was educated at St Anne’s, Abbots Bromley, in Kent and Alexandra College, Dublin. Letts began her career as a playwright, writing two one-act plays for the Abbey theatre, ‘The eyes of the blind’ (1907) and ‘The challenge’ (1909), later recalling that she had been inspired to write plays when she saw J. M. Synge’s ‘Riders to the sea’. She commented that ‘The eyes of the blind’, concerning a blind man claiming knowledge of murder on a Wicklow bog ‘was a poor little play, something that could be parodied and torn to pieces’ (Mikhail, 36).
Though the play was successfully produced, her early plays were subsequently seen as artefacts of the Abbey’s history rather than evidence of significant artistic ability. W. B. Yeats, however, was apt to name her alongside Lady Gregory as an indication that the early Abbey was well disposed towards female playwrights. Letts insisted the plays had been the ‘open sesame’ to the regions behind the stage, but it was not until 1941 that her third play, ‘Hamilton and Jones’, was staged by Longford Productions at the Gate theatre.
Some critics were less than effusive in their praise of her poetry, which is notable for its dialect verse and celebration of the lives of the rural people of Leinster, her favourite subject matter. Others, however, have suggested that her poetry revealed an authentic ear for dialect with touches of humour and individuality and was of a higher standard than the usual dialect poems concerning the peasantry. Her poetry collections include Songs from Leinster (1913), Halloween and poems of the war (1916), The spires of Oxford and other poems (1917), and More songs from Leinster (1926). Some of her best poems are moving responses to the first world war, during which she served as a nurse at various military hospitals.
Revealing her adaptability, Letts also wrote numerous novels and children’s books, including Diana dethroned (1909), Naughty Sophia (1912), Pomona’s island (1931), and The gentle mountain (1938). Her hagiographic work on saints included The mighty army (1912) and St Patrick the travelling man (1962). She also made numerous contributions in verse to the Spectator, Cornhill, Punch and the Yale Review. Knockmaroon, published in 1933, is considered her finest work, a reminiscence about the big house of her grandparents, near Phoenix Park, Dublin.
In 1926 she married W. H. F. Verschoyle, a land agent. They lived in Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin. After his death in 1943 she lived with her sisters in Faversham, Kent, before moving in the 1950s to Beech Cottage on Ballinclea Road, Killiney, Co. Dublin. She was a keen gardener and a trained masseuse. Her last years were spent in the Tivoli Nursing Home, Tivoli Road, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin. She died there 7 June 1972 and was buried in Rathcoole cemetery, Co. Dublin.