Growing up, Christopher Murray Grieve (soon to become
poet Hugh MacDiarmid) eschewed group activities for
more solitary pursuits such as hiking, bicycling,
and reading, later commenting, "I was always a loner."
He would remain an avid reader throughout his life.
He and his younger brother Andrew were never close,
and even as adults there was a great deal of animosity
between them. Their relationship remained strained for
decades, and were usually not on speaking terms.
One of Hugh's favorite poets was fellow Scot
John Davidson. He once said Davidson was
"the only Scottish poet to whom I owe anything at
all." His 1909 suicide was a personal blow to young
Grieve.
His early career as a journalist was interrupted
in 1915 by World War I. His service in the Royal
Army Medical Corps (RAMC) continued until Sergeant
Grieve's demobilization in July of 1919, several
months after the Armistice. He had married Peggy
Skinner the previous year, and almost immediately
resumed his literary endeavors, though he had
actually continued writing throughout the war,
when time permitted. He found work as a journalist
in 1920 at the Montrose Review, but didn't
adopt the pseudonym "Hugh MacDiarmid" until 1922,
upon publication of his new literary magazine,
The Scottish Chapbook.
He was very active in the Scottish political
scene. In 1928, MacDiarmid was a founding member
of the Scottish National Party (SNP). He urged his
fellow Scots to be more politically conscious, and
subsequently joined the Communist Party. He worked
diligently to promote a Scottish Literary Renaissance,
and to teach indigenous Scots literature and the Gaelic
language in schools. He helped revitalize the Scots
language through his use of elements of various Scots
dialects in his poetry. Late in life, he became
professor of literature at the Royal Scottish Academy
(1974), and president of the Poetry Society in 1976.
A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle, published in 1926,
is generally regarded as his greatest achievement.
Many considered MacDiarmid to be the greatest Scottish
poet since Robert Burns, and certainly the preeminent
Scottish poet of the first half of the 20th century.
Selected writing credits:
His works include Annals of the Five Senses (1923),
Sangschaw (1925), Penny Wheep (1926),
A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle (1926), Albyn,
or Scotland and the Future (1927), The Lucky Bag
(1927), To Circumjack Cencrastus, 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)
was a collaboration with Lewis Grassic Gibbon. Stony Limits,
and other poems, published in 1934, marked his return
to standard English.
Additional works include 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), 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), and Celtic
Nationalism which was a collaboration with Owen Dudley
Edwards, Gwynfor Evans and Ioan Rhys (1968). Hugh MacDiarmid's
final works were Direadh I, II, and III (1974),
Scotch Whiskey as tasted by Bill Simpson and others
(1974), John Knox in collaboration with Campbell
Maclean and Anthony Ross (1976), and finally, Aesthetics
in Scotland edited by Alan Bold, and posthumously published
in 1984.
Hugh MacDiarmid also penned two autobiographies,
the first was published in 1943, Lucky Poet:
A Self-Study in Literature and Political Ideas,
the second, The Company I've Kept, came along
more than two decades later, in 1967.
Residences of Hugh MacDiarmid:
Note that these residences may no longer exist, and it's
possible the addresses have changed over the years.
This is not to suggest that Mr. MacDiarmid owned each and
every one of these structures. We're only reporting the
fact that he resided in them at one point or another in
his life.
Arkinholm Terrace, Langholm, Dumfriesshire, Scotland
Henry Street, Langholm, Dumfriesshire, Scotland
8 Bon-Accord Street, Clydebank, near Glasgow, Scotland
35 South Street, St. Andrews, Scotland
65 Market Street, St. Andrews, Scotland
Kildermorie Lodge, Loch Morie, near Alness, Scotland
19 Kincardine Street, Montrose, Scotland
16 Links Avenue, Montrose, Scotland
Dungavel House, Strathaven, Lanarkshire, Scotland
55 Harcourt Street, Ebbw Vale, South Wales
18 Pyrland Road, London, England
64 Chancery Lane, London, England
Brough Schoolhouse, Brough, Whalsay, Scotland
2 Park Terrace, Glasgow, Scotland
35 Havelock Street, Partick, Glasgow, Scotland
27 Arundel Drive, Battlefield, Glasgow, Scotland
32 Victoria Crescent Road, Dowanhill, Glasgow, Scotland
Brownsbank Cottage, Candymill, near Biggar, Lanarkshire, Scotland
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