The Children of Odin (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading)

Padraic Colum was born in 1881 at Collumbkille, County Longford, Ireland, and was the oldest of eight children. He was active in the Gaelic League and Irish Republican Army, and wrote plays for the Abbey Theatre, the premiere dramatic venue for Irish playwrights at the turn of the twentieth century. He was acquainted with the prime movers of the Irish literary renaissance, including James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, and Lady Gregory. In 1914, he emigrated from Ireland and settled in the United States, where he began a new career writing storybooks for children. By the end of his career, he had published over fifty works. He died in 1972.