Hugh MacDiarmid was the pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve (August 11, 1892, Langholm - September 9, 1978), perhaps the most important Scottish poet of the 20th century. He was instrumental in creating a truly Scottish version of modernism and was, perhaps, the leading light in the Scottish literary Renaissance of the 20th century. Unusually for a first generation modernist, he was a communist. Unusually for a communist, he was a committed Scottish nationalist. He wrote both in English and in literary Scots (often referred to as Lallans). August 11 is the 223rd day of the year (224th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Langholm, also known as the Muckle Toon, is a burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, on the Esk Water river and the A7 road. ... September 9 is the 252nd day of the year (253rd in leap years). ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... Motto: Nemo me impune lacessit (English: No one provokes me with impunity) Scotlands location within Europe Scotlands location within the United Kingdom Languages English, Gaelic, Scots Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow First Minister Jack McConnell Area - Total - % water Ranked 2nd UK 78,782 km² 1. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... Modernism is a cultural movement that generally includes the progressive art and architecture, music, literature and design which emerged in the decades before 1914. ... The Scottish version of modernism, the Scottish literary renaissance was begun by Hugh MacDiarmid in the 1920s when he abandoned his English language poetry and began to write in Lallans. ... Communism - Wikipedia /**/ @import /w/skins-1. ... Walter Thomas Monningtons 1925 painting called Parliamentary Union of England and Scotland 1707 hangs in the Palace of Westminster depicting the official presentation of the law that ended Scottish independence. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Scots or Lallans (Eng: Lowlands), sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from the Gaelic language of the Highlands, is a West Germanic language used in Scotland, parts of Northern Ireland, and border areas of the Republic of Ireland, where it is known in official circles as Ulster Scots or... Lallans, a variant of the Scots word lawlands [lA:l@n(d)z, la:l@n(d)z] (lowlands) - the lowlands of Scotland. ...

Early Life and Writings

After leaving school in 1910, MacDiarmid worked as a journalist for five years. He then served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the First World War. After the war, he married and returned to journalism. His first book, Annals of the Five Senses (1923) was a mixture of prose and poetry in English, but he then turned to Scots for a series of books, culminating in what is probably his best known work, the book-length A Drunk Man Looks At The Thistle. This poem is widely regarded as one of the most important long poems in 20th century Scottish literature. After that, he published several books containing poems in both English and Scots.-1... The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace. ... Combatants Allies: Serbia, Russia, France, Romania, Belgium, British Empire, United States, Italy, and others Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Ottoman Empire Casualties Military dead:5 million Civilian dead:3 million Total dead:8 million Military dead:4 million Civilian dead:3 million Total dead:7 million The First World... 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Scottish literature is literature written in Scotland or by Scottish writers. ...

Politics

In 1928, MacDiarmid helped found the National Party of Scotland. He was also a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. During the 1930s, he was expelled from the former for being a communist and from the latter for being a nationalist. In 1956, when many people were leaving in the aftermath of events in Hungary, MacDiarmid rejoined the Communist Party. In 1950, George Orwell compiled a list of suspected communist sympathisers for British intelligence. He included MacDiarmid in this list. As Grieve, he stood in the 1950 election in the Glasgow Kelvingrove constituency, as the Scottish National Party candidate, coming last with 639 votes. 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The National Party of Scotland (NPS) was formed in 1928 after John MacCormick of the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association (GUSNA) called a meeting of all those favouring the establishment of a party favouring Scottish independence. ... The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist party in the United Kingdom. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (June 25, 1903 – January 21, 1950), much better known by the pen name George Orwell, was a British author and journalist. ... The United Kingdom general election in 1950 was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. ... Glasgow Kelvingrove was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 until 1983. ... In Scotland, the Scottish National Party (SNP) is a centre-left political party which campaigns for Scottish independence. ...

Later Writings

As his interest in science and linguistics increased, MacDiarmid found himself turning more and more to English as a means of expression so that most of his later poetry is written in that language. His ambition was to live up to Rilkes dictum that 'the poet must know everything' and to write a poetry that contained all knowledge. As a result, some of the later work is a kind of found poetry reusing text from a range of sources. This led to accusations of plagiarism, to which the poet's response was 'The greater the plagiarism the greater the work of art.' The great achievement of this late poetry is to attempt on an epic scale to capture the idea of a world without God in which all the facts the poetry deals with are scientifically verifiable. Rainer Maria Rilke (born 4 December 1875 in Prague; died 29 December 1926 in Val-Mont (Switzerland)) was an important poet in the German language. ... Found poetry is the rearrangement of words or phrases taken randomly from other sources (example: clipped newspaper headlines, bits of advertising copy, handwritten cards wertwrwerwergreat, can stretch a cord, however fine, into a horizontal line that shall be absolutely straight. ... Plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty, specifically the unacknowledged use of another persons idea(s), information, language, or writing. ... The epic is a broadly defined genre of poetry, and one of the major forms of narrative literature. ...

MacDiarmid wrote a number of non-fiction prose works, including Scottish Eccentrics and his autobiography Lucky Poet. He also did a number of translations from Scottish Gaelic, including Duncan Ban MacIntyre's Praise of Ben Doran, which were well received by native speakers including Sorley MacLean. Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... Somhairle MacGill-Eain better known in English as Sorley MacLean (October 26, 1911 - November 24, 1996) was one of the most significant Scots Gaelic poets of the 20th century. ...

Places of interest

MacDiarmid grew up in the Scottish Borders town of Langholm, where his closest living relatives still reside. The town is home to a monument in his honour[1] made of cast iron which takes the form of a large open book depicting images from his writings. Langholm, also known as the Muckle Toon, is a burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, on the Esk Water river and the A7 road. ...

Further reading

• Michael Grieve and Alexander Scott (1972) The Hugh Macdiarmid Anthology: Poems in Scots and English, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London
• Alan Bold (1983) MacDiarmid: The Terrible Crystal, Routledge & Kegan Paul
• Alan Bold (1984) Letters, Hamish Hamilton
• Alan Bold (1988) MacDiarmid A Critical Biography, John Murray

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External link

• Hugh MacDiarmid's Grave
• A bibliography