Augusta Gregory was a highly energetic and creative force in the Irish Literary Revival, which began in the late nineteenth century. Material from her collections and translations of Irish folklore, epics, and oral poetry inspired new literary works by herself and others. At the age of fifty, she began writing plays for the Abbey Theatre, which she co-founded and co-directed. Her skill at rendering idiomatic conversation, honed through years of listening to the stories told to her by country people in county Galway, is evident throughout her writing. In addition to her drama and folklore, Lady Gregory wrote several articles on Irish politics and culture, two memoirs, a history of the Abbey Theatre, diaries, and an autobiography. As a nationalist with an identity grounded in the ruling class, she can be seen as a colonialist reformer.