John Millington Synge

Edmund John Millington Synge (; 16 April 1871 – 24 March 1909) was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, collector of folklore, and a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival. His best known play ''The Playboy of the Western World'' was poorly received, due to its bleak ending, depiction of Irish peasants, and idealisation of parricide, leading to hostile audience reactions and riots in Dublin during its opening run at Abbey Theatre, Dublin, which he had co-founded with W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory. His other major works include "In the Shadow of the Glen" (1903), "Riders to the Sea" (1904), "The Well of the Saints" (1905), and "The Tinker's Wedding" (1909).

Although he came from a wealthy Anglo-Irish background, his writings mainly concern working-class Catholics in rural Ireland, and with what he saw as the essential paganism of their world view. Owing to ill health, Synge was home schooled. His early interest was in music, leading to a scholarship and degree at Trinity College Dublin, and he went to Germany in 1893 to study music. He abandoned this career path in 1894 with a move to Paris where he took up poetry and literary criticism, where he met Yeats and then returned to Ireland.

Synge suffered from Hodgkin's disease. He died aged 37 from Hodgkin's related cancer, while writing "Deirdre of Sorrow", considered by some as his unfinished masterpiece. Although he left relatively few works behind, they are nonetheless widely regarded as of high cultural significance. Provided by Wikipedia