Poet, born in Langholm, Dumfries and Galloway, SW Scotland, UK. He became a pupil-teacher at Broughton Higher Grade School in Edinburgh before turning to journalism. After World War 1, he married, settled as a journalist in Montrose, and edited anthologies of contemporary Scottish writing. After publishing his outstanding early lyrical verse, Sangschaw (1925) and Penny Wheep (1926), he established himself as the leader of a vigorous Scottish Renaissance with A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle (1926), full of political, metaphysical, and nationalistic reflections on the Scottish predicament. He became professor of literature at the Royal Scottish Academy (1974), and president of the Poetry Society (1976). He was a founder member of the Scottish Nationalist Party, and an active Communist.
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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 Renaissance of the 20th century.
Early Life and Writings
After leaving school in 1910, MacDiarmid worked as a journalist for five years. 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.
Politics
In 1928, MacDiarmid helped found the National Party of Scotland.
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.
MacDiarmid wrote a number of non-fiction prose works, including Scottish Eccentrics and his autobiography Lucky Poet.
Places of interest
MacDiarmid grew up in the Scottish Borders town of Langholm, where his closest living relatives still reside.
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