Augusta Persse was born at Roxborough House, near Loughrea, Co. Galway, on 15 March 1852. In 1880 she married Sir William Gregory of nearby Coole Park, a retired governor of Ceylon. He was thirty-five years older and died in 1892. Gregory's Autobiography (1894) was edited by his widow, who also compiled Mr Gregory's Letter Box (1898) from his grandfather's correspondence as Irish under-secretary. During her marriage Lady Gregory had become an active pamphleteer, writing on such subjects as cottage industries in the West of Ireland and the 1886 Home Rule Bill. Her researches converted her to Home Rule, and meetings with W. B. Yeats led to a plan for an Irish national theatre.

Yeats's The Countess Cathleen (1899) was the first production of the Irish Literary Theatre in Dublin, and in 1904 the Abbey Theatre opened with his On Baile's Strand and her comedy Spreading the News. Her unexpected gift for comedy was further displayed in one-acters, such as The Rising of the Moon (1907) and The Workhouse Ward (1908), which remain popular. She also wrote 'folk history' plays, such as Kincora (1905) and Dervorgilla (1907). She remained a director of the Abbey until her death and did much to foster the work of Sean O'Casey.

Most of Lady Gregory's plays use a stage Irish dialect, named Kiltartan from the village near her home, employing grammatical constructions drawn from the native language. Several Moliere plays were translated into Kiltartan, including The Doctor in Spite of Himself (1906) and The Miser (1909). She formed a local branch of the Gaelic League and translated Irish sagas in Cuchulain of Muirthemne (1902) and Gods and Fighting Men (1904). She also published several collections of the folk tales she gathered avidly, most notably Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland (1920). During the War of Independence her articles in the English weekly The Nation were outspoken in criticising the Black and Tans.

Today Lady Gregory is most remembered as an influential figure in the Irish Literary Revival, whose major figures gathered regularly at Coole. Her valuable account of Our Irish Theatre (1914) was followed by the posthumous publication of Lady Gregory's Journals 1916-30 (1946), edited by Lennox Robinson, and her autobiographical Seventy Years (1974). She died at Coole on 22 May 1932.

From the Appletree Press title Famous Irish Writers by Martin Wallace.