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Lewis
Grassic Gibbon
Lewis
Grassic Gibbon is the pen-name of James Leslie Mitchell who was born
near the village of Arbuthnott, at the croft of Hillhead of Seggat, in
Aberdeenshire on 13th February 1901.
 Life
in this small rural community shaped Leslie Mitchell's thoughts
and beliefs. After his education he worked in journalism in Aberdeen and
Glasgow and saw military service in the Middle East and the south of
England. Mitchell settled in Welwyn, England with his wife,
Rebecca Middleton, a former neighbour and schoolmate at Arbuthnott.
There he was able to put his native North-East into context and view it
with a clarity which enabled him to bring the countryside and the people
of the Mearns alive on the printed page. In 1929 he gave up his job to
become a full-time professional writer.
Although
he died very young Mitchell wrote prolifically and in addition to his
best-known work, Scots Quair, he wrote seventeen full length books in under seven
years, including a historical novel, Spartacus;
he co-authored Scottish Scene with Hugh MacDiarmid; and wrote a
steady stream of stories, essays and polemics.
He
is best known for the trilogy, Scots
Quair, which comprises Sunset
Song, Cloud Howe and Grey Granite.
These chart the life of Chris Guthrie, a crofter’s daughter in the
fictional Kinraddie, as she moves from farmer’s wife to widowhood in
the city. Her life is a vehicle for Mitchell’s views on Scotland and
the disappearing way of life at the beginning of the twentieth century.
At the end of the trilogy Chris returns to the countryside while her
son, who has become embroiled in communist ideals heads off for London.
Sunset
Song caused much controversy when it was first published with its
intimacy and reality, however, it then suffered years of critical
neglect. The closing years of the twentieth century have seen a revival
in Mitchell’s work with re-prints of his novels which are appearing on
the curriculum at schools and universities.
A
‘Grassic Gibbon Centre’ has opened at his native village of
Arbuthnott.
Published
works:
Hanno:
or the Future of Exploration (1928)
Stained
Radiance: A Fictionist's Prelude (1930)
The
Thirteenth Disciple (1931)
The
Calends of Cairo (1931)
Three
Go Back (1932)
The
Lost Trumpet (1932)
Sunset
Song (1932)
Persian
Dawns, Egyptian Nights (1932)
Image
and Superscription (1933)
Cloud
Howe (1933)
Spartacus
(1933)
Niger:
The Life of Mungo Park (1934)
The
Conquest of the Maya (1943)
Gay
Hunter (1934)
Scottish
Scene (1934)
Grey
Granite (1934)
Nine
Against the Unknown (1934)
The
Speak of the Mearns (1982)
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