The Later Essays brings together twenty-one essays and introductions published by Yeats after 1912. The volume includes his controversial introduction to The Oxford Book of Modern Verse, first published in 1936. Covering a range of subjects from Shelley to Balzac, from the mystical experience to Irish politics, the essays are a testament to the breadth of Yeats's interests and obsessions. This definitive edition provides full explanatory textual notes and a preface by leading Yeats scholar, William H O'Donnell.