AE

AE, pseudonym of George William Russell (1867-1935), Irish writer and painter, whose poems and short stories and essays on the question of Irish independence were a major contribution to the cultural movement known as the Celtic Renaissance (see Irish Literature). He was born in Lurgan, Northern Ireland, and educated in Dublin. His pseudonym, Æ, which he first used as a signature, is a contraction of the word aeon, which means “an indefinitely long period of time.” Æ was one of the founders of the Abbey Theatre, but resigned in 1904 after a disagreement with fellow founder William Butler Yeats, the renowned Irish poet and dramatist. Æ's poetry, including Collected Poems (1913) and The House of the Titans and Other Poems (1934), reflects his preoccupation with theosophy and his belief in the world of nature as the chief connection between humans and God.