MacDiarmid, Hugh (1892-1978), was the pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve, the leading Scottish poet of the first half of the 1900’s. MacDiarmid was the central figure in a revival of Scottish literature during the 1900’s. His poetry demonstrated the potential of the language of Scotland as a means of modern literary expression. He was an important translator of Scottish Gaelic and edited several literary magazines and anthologies of Scottish poetry.
MacDiarmid wrote some of his poems in the Scottish dialect known as Lallans. His books of poetry include Sangchaw (1925); Penny Wheep (1926); A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle (1926), perhaps his major work; A Kist O’Whistles (1947); In Memoriam James Joyce (1955); and The Kind of Poetry I Want (1961). He also wrote the autobiographical Lucky Poet (1943) and The Company I’ve Kept (1962).
MacDiarmid was born on Aug. 11, 1892, in Langholm, Dumfries and Galloway Region, Scotland, and educated at Edinburgh University. A founder of the Scottish Nationalist Party, he later became a Communist. Many of his works of the 1930’s reflect his left-wing political views, notably the poetry collection First Hymn to Lenin (1931). His Complete Poems: 1920-1976 was published in 1978, shortly after his death on Sept. 9, 1978.
