Queer Places:
Trinity College, College Green, Dublin 2, D02 P710 Co. Dublin
University of California, 110 Sproul Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720
Oceano, CA 93445

Ella Young (December 26, 1867 – July 23, 1956) was an Irish poet, Celtic mythologist, and prominent figure in the Gaelic and Celtic Revival literary movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Born on December 26, 1867, in Fenagh, County Antrim, to a Protestant family, she grew up in Dublin and attended the Royal University before earning her master's degree from Trinity College, Dublin. Her early intellectual and spiritual pursuits drew her to Theosophy as an early member of the Hermetic Society—the Dublin branch of the Theosophical Society—where she formed a lasting connection with writer Kenneth Morris and became a protégé of George William Russell ("Æ") as part of his select group known as the "singing birds." Deeply invested in Irish nationalism and her friendship with Patrick Pearse, Young played an active role in the Easter Rising as a member of Cumann na mBan, smuggling rifles and supplies to support Republican forces. Her creative output flourished with the publication of her first volume of verse, Poems, in 1906, followed by her folklore collection, The Coming of Lugh, in 1909, and Celtic Wonder-Tales in 1910, both of which were illustrated by her close friend Maud Gonne.

In the 1920s, Young emigrated to the United States, temporarily visiting before settling in California in 1925. Her arrival famously involved brief detention at Ellis Island when authorities learned of her belief in fairies, elves, and pixies, which triggered initial concerns regarding her mental admission status. Despite this bureaucratic hurdle, she launched an enthusiastic speaking tour across prominent American institutions like Columbia University, Smith College, Vassar College, and Mills College. She subsequently held a position as the James D. Phelan Lecturer in Irish Myth and Lore at the University of California, Berkeley, for nearly a decade. Known for her colorful and captivating persona, she lectured in the purple robes of a Druid, praised the benefits of talking to trees, and shared her encyclopedic knowledge of Celtic mythology. Her time in California cemented her status within an eclectic and prestigious circle of artists, writers, and thinkers, including Robinson Jeffers, Ansel Adams, Georgia O'Keeffe, Alan Watts, Harry Partch, and the lesbian mystic poet Elsa Gidlow.

Young achieved literary acclaim with works such as her Newbery Honor books The Wonder-Smith and His Son in 1928 and The Tangle-Coated Horse and Other Tales in 1930, alongside The Unicorn with Silver Shoes in 1932. Later in life, she retired to a cottage she named "Cluan Ard" in Oceano, California, near the coastal dunes. There, she became the inspirational "godmother" and center of a community of artists known as the Dunites, and she completed her autobiography, Flowering Dusk: Things Remembered Accurately and Inaccurately, published in 1945. Her social circles also linked her to significant queer figures of the era, including the prominent relationship between artist Thomas Handforth and German scholar Edmund Eisen Tolk, whose home in Avila, California, welcomed her among their circle of friends introduced by Richard Bennett. After battling terminal stomach cancer, Young passed away on July 23, 1956, at the age of 88. Honoring her final wishes, her remains were cremated, and her ashes were scattered in a redwood grove near St. Helena, accompanied by a traditional Celtic prayer, while the bulk of her estate was bequeathed to the Save the Redwoods League.

References:

The Lavender Palette: Gay Culture and the Art of Washington (2020) by David F. Martin

Other references:

• Murphy, Rose (2008). Ella Young: Irish Mystic and Rebel. Dublin: The Liffey Press.
• Matthews, John, and Denise Sallee, eds. (2011/2012). At the Gates of Dawn: A Collection of Writings by Ella Young. Skylight Press.
• Young, Ella (1945). Flowering Dusk: Things Remembered Accurately and Inaccurately. London: Longmans, Green & Company (Autobiography).
• Colum, Padraic (1931). Ella Young: An Appreciation. London: Longmans, Green & Company.
• McDowell, Dorothea (2015). Ella Young and Her World: Celtic Mythology, the Irish Revival and the Californian Avant-Garde. Academica Press.
• Hammond, Norm (1992). The Dunites. Arroyo Grande, CA: South County Historical Society.
• Starr, Kevin (2009). Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950–1963. Oxford University Press (includes discussion of Young on pp. 54–55).
• McCoole, Sinéad (2003). No Ordinary Women: Irish Female Activists in the Revolutionary Years 1900–1923. University of Wisconsin Press.
• Hammond, Anne (2002). Ansel Adams: Divine Performance. Yale University Press.
• Walsh, James P. (2009). "Ella Young, Irish Mystic and Rebel: from Literary Dublin to the American West." California History, vol. 86, no. 2, California Historical Society, pp. 75.
• Lyman, W. W. (Autumn 1973). "Ella Young: A Memoir." Éire-Ireland.
• Saul, George Brandon (Fall 1954). "A Stone Against Oblivion: On the Prose of Ella Young." Arizona Quarterly, pp. 28.
• Ella Young Papers, 1900–1956: Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

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