Lewis Grassic Gibbon

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James Leslie Mitchell, also known by the pseudonym Lewis Grassic Gibbon

James Leslie Mitchell (pseudonym: Lewis Grassic Gibbon ; born February 13, 1901 in Hillhead of Segget, Auchterless , Aberdeenshire , Scotland , † February 7, 1935 in Welwyn Garden City , Hertfordshire , England ) was a Scottish writer.

Life

Mitchell was born in 1901 to Kätnern in Aberdeenshire and grew up under meager circumstances in the country in the small village of Arbuthnott south of Aberdeen . He finished school at the age of 16. He started an apprenticeship as a reporter. As a journalist in Aberdeen and for a short time in Glasgow , he became politically active as a leftist and helped found the Aberdeen Soviet in 1917. Because of his experience in Glasgow with its slums and the radical labor movement known as Red Clydeside , he developed clear criticism of the "Scottish Renaissance", a literary movement of the 20th century, as part of which he saw himself, because it ignored the urban problems and the terrible housing conditions in the slums of Glasgow.

In 1919 Mitchell enlisted in the Royal Air Force . He worked as an administrative clerk and typist and was stationed in the Middle East and Egypt , where his interest in ancient cultures and diffusionist theories of cultural development was aroused. During his time in the army, he wrote short stories and novels about discoveries and discoverers. Mitchell mostly used the pseudonym Lewis Grassic Gibbon , derived from the family name of his mother Lellias Grassic Gibbon. In 1928, he quit his unloved service and moved to Welwyn Garden City to devote himself entirely to writing.

In 1925 he married Rebecca Middleton (1901–1978) and had a daughter with her, who later became a lawyer, Rhea Martin (1930–2014). Mitchell died unexpectedly of sepsis in 1935, a week before his 34th birthday . In 1991 the Lewis Grassic Gibbon Center was set up in his honor in Arbuthnott, the place where he grew up.

Main work

Memorial plaque for Gibbon in his childhood village Arbuthnott

Perhaps his most important work is the trilogy of novels A Scots Quair , a Scottish book . The BBC described it as a classic work of Scottish literature . According to Esther Kinsky , the first band, Sunset Song, is considered "the ultimate Scottish novel". The themes of the novel are the material and moral misery of the small rural communities in north-east Scotland, the role of women, the brutality of those who have returned from the world war and the consequences of modernization for the traditional life of farmers.

Sunset Song's popularity continues to this day: Mitchell's novel was voted the Scots Favorite Book in the Love to Read campaign in 2016 . In 2015, the film adaptation of Sunset Song was made , directed by Terence Davies with Agyness Deyn .

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), the first book in the trilogy A Scots Quair (Dt .: A Scottish Book, Vol. 1: The Long Way Through Ginstermoor , Verlag Volk und Welt 1970; New translation of the Song of the Sunset , from Scottish English by Esther Kinsky , Guggolz Verlag 2018)
  • Persian Dawns, Egyptian Nights (1932)
  • Image and Superscription (1933)
  • Cloud Howe (1933), the second book of the trilogy A Scots Quair (German: A Scottish Book, Vol. 2: Clouds over the plain , Volk und Welt publishing house 1972)
  • Spartacus (1933) (German: Spartakus , Laika Verlag: Hamburg 2017)
  • Niger: The Life of Mungo Park (1934)
  • The Conquest of the Maya (1934)
  • Gay Hunter (1934)
  • Scottish Scene Or The Intelligent Man's Guide To Albyn (1934), together with Hugh MacDiarmid (German: Scenes from Scotland , translated from English and with an afterword by Esther Kinsky , Guggolz Verlag 2016)
  • Gray Granite (1934), the third book in the trilogy A Scots Quair (German: A Scottish Book, Vol. 3: Flamme in Grauem Granit , Verlag Volk und Welt 1974)
  • Nine Against the Unknown (1934)
  • The Speak of the Mearns (1982), published posthumously

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Esther Kinsky: "Trauchle", from toiling on the abyss - James Leslie Mitchell's "Scenes from Scotland". In: Scenes from Scotland. Guggolz Verlag, 2016.
  2. ^ A b Paul Foot: Lewis Grassic Gibbon: Poet of the City . December 2001. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
  3. ^ A b c Carl MacDougall: Lewis Grassic Gibbon: 1901-1935 - Biography. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
  4. ↑ Lewis Grassic Gibbon: Biography on Undiscovered Scotland. Retrieved October 26, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Dr Rhea Martin. Retrieved October 26, 2019 .
  6. ^ William K. Malcolm: Rhea Martin obituary . In: The Guardian . July 2, 2014, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed October 26, 2019]).
  7. ↑ Sunset Song 'is Scotland's favorite book' . October 17, 2016 ( bbc.com [accessed August 22, 2019]).
personal data
SURNAME Gibbon, Lewis Grassic
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mitchell, James Leslie (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Hillhead of Segget, Auchterless, Aberdeenshire
DATE OF DEATH February 7, 1935
Place of death Welwyn Garden City