<p>Antoinette Quinn's acclaimed biography of Patrick Kavanagh, the most important Irish poet between the death of W.B. Yeats and the rise of Seamus Heaney, tells the triumphant story of his journey from homespun balladry through early journal and poetry publications to his eventual coronation as one of the most influential figures in Irish poetry.<br><br>Kavanagh (1904?1967) was born in County Monaghan, the son of a cobbler-cum-small farmer. He l...