(1865-1929)
An Irish author born and raised in Boyle, County Roscommon, Grace Little Rhys received what is written as "good education" from governesses. She later moved to London, along with her sisters, to earn a living as a teacher after her father gambled away his estate. Grace met her husband, the Anglo-Welsh poet Ernest Percival Rhys, at a garden party hosted by his friend William Butler Yeats. They married in 1891. She became his literary companion as well as his wife--Ernest writes of them working together in the British Museum Library. She began her writing career after her marriage in spite of ill health caused by the stress of her husband’s uncertain career and from giving birth to her three children. Her first novel was _Mary Dominic_, published in 1898. Throughout her life she wrote ten novels, and also published songbooks and volumes of poetry. She had published several works of essays including _Five Beads on a String_ in 1907 and _About Many Things_ in 1920. In 1929, while she accompanied her husband on a lecture tour in Washington DC, Grace passed away. (Sharlin Bird)