Hugh MacDiarmid -- Christopher Murray Grieve
   (1892-1978)
  
Hugh MacDiarmid's particular brand of patriotism was absolute and critical at the same time. As a writer who achieved some celebrity status during his lifetime, he took his own responsibility for the advancement of Scottish culture to heart. "I am Scotland itself today ... Scotland will shine like the sun in my song."

MacDiarmid was the first son of James and Elizabeth Grieve. He was born on August 11, 1892, in Langholm, where his father worked as a postman. His given names, Christopher Murray, were for his father's mother, Christina Murray. Christopher's younger brother Andrew was an outdoors lad, in contrast to the bookish Christie.

MacDiarmid was a journalist before going to serve in World War I. He later became a town councilor in Montrose, and then a Justice of the Peace. In the mid-twenties, he began publishing a literary magazine, The Scottish Chapbook, and adopted the pen name which would become famous.

Poetry had been one of MacDiarmid's passions since boyhood; in addition to his poetry, he books and essays on a variety of topics. He published over 30 books in his lifetime, from poetry to politics to whiskey. Like Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott before him, MacDiarmid's work was interested in defining his culture. He became "a sort of enfant terrible of the Scots literary and political scene," according to Sheila Douglas of Heartland Radio in Pitlochry.

Essays by the poet urged Scots to be more politically conscious, to teach Scots literature and the Gaelic language in schools, and to become more revolutionary than the SNP, a party he had helped form but from which he was later expelled. While an active advocate of Scottish culture, MacDiarmid was also critical of his country's provincialism. Alan Bold comments, "Politically, MacDiarmid was a Nationalist with a poor opinion of the nation he lived in."

Hugh MacDiarmid was married twice and had three children, Christine and Walter with his first wife, Peggy, and Michael with his second wife, Valda.

MacDiarmid died of cancer on 9 September, 1978, in Chalmers Hospital, Edinburgh.

"With a few friends we retired for a private party at the Station Hotel. Much drink was taken, the mood was relaxed, the conversation was inconsequential. Suddenly MacDiarmid said he wanted to say something. He stood up and launched into an eloquent speech about the cultural claims of the Gaelic language. Had he been given the opportunity, he said, he would have written his poetry in Gaelic. The convivial Chris Grieve had become the forceful MacDiarmid, self-conscious of his destiny as the poetic voice of the nation. He was never complacent, he always felt there were urgent challenges. Although he had revitalized the Scots language through his lyrics and achieved artistic immortality with A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle, he was not about to rest on his laurels." -- Alan Bold, friend of MacDiarmid, MacDiarmid: Christopher Murray Grieve, A Critical Biography.

Source: Bold, Alan: MacDiarmid: Christopher Murray Grieve, A Critical Biography, 1988.

Books by Hugh MacDiarmid:

  • Annals of the Five Senses, 1923
  • Sangschaw, 1925
  • Penny Wheep, 1926
  • A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle, 1926
  • Contemporary Scottish Studies, 1926
  • Albyn, or Scotland and the Future, 1927
  • To Circumjack Cenrastus, or The Curly Snake, 1930
  • First Hymn to Lenin, and other poems, 1931
  • Scots Unbound, and other poems, 1932
  • Scottish Scene, or The Intelligent Man's Guide to Albyn, 1934
  • Stony Limits, and other poems, 1934
  • At the Sign of the Thistle: a collection of essays, 1934
  • Second Hymn to Lenin, and other poems, 1935
  • Scottish Eccentrics, 1936
  • The Islands of Scotland: Hebrides, Orkneys, and Shetlands, 1939
  • Lucky Poet: A Self-Study in Literature and Political Ideas, 1943
  • A Kist of Whistles: new poems, 1947
  • Cunninghame Graham: a centenary study, 1952
  • Francis George Scott: an essay on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday, 1955
  • In Memoriam James Joyce: From A Vision of World Language, 1955
  • Stony Limits and Scots Unbound, and other poems, 1956
  • Three Hymns to Lenin, 1957
  • The Battle Continues, 1957
  • Burns Today and Tomorrow, 1959
  • The Kind of Poetry I Want, 1961
  • The Company I've Kept, 1966
  • Celtic Nationalism (with Owen Dudley Edwards, Gwynfor Evans and Ioan Rhys), 1968
  • Direadh I, II, and III, 1974
  • Scotch Whiskey (As tasted by Bill Simpson and others.), 1974
  • John Knox (with Campbell Maclean and Anthony Ross), 1976
  • Aesthetics in Scotland (edited by Alan Bold, posthumous publication), 1984.
  

  


Thursday, December 26th, 2019

Attention visitors: Tartans.com is back. Please note that this is a snapshot of the site as it existed nearly 20 years ago and you may encounter broken links; we are still combing through the site and correcting those as we find them. Please also note that some sections are currently not functional, primarily the discussion forums/clan chat boards.


** HOME - First Time Visitors - Glossary - - Contact Us **
Awards | Bibliography | Clan Calendar | Clan Chat | Clan Finder | History | Famous Scots | Genealogy | Great Hall of the Clans | Links | News and Features | Scots on the Net | Search | Site Map
The Gathering of the Clans

Clans of Ireland | Ancestral Research Services


Copyright 1995- Tartans.com - All Rights Reserved.