Christopher
Murray Grieve (Hugh MacDiarmid) was born in Langholm, Scotland,
in 1892. After being educated at Langholm Academy he became a teacher
at Broughton Higher Grade School.
During
the First World War MacDiarmid served with the
Royal Army Medical Corps in France. After
the war he worked as a journalist. He also published poetry. This
included Sangsclaw (1925), Penny
Whip (1926), A Drunk Man Looks
at the Thistle (1926) and Circumjack
Cencrastus (1930).
He
was a member of the Independent Labour Party.
In 1928 he helped establish the National Party of Scotland (Scottish
National Party). However, he was later expelled from the party because
of his Marxist views. He now joined the Communist
Party and in 1931 published Hymns to
Lenin.
Other
books by MacDiarmid included Scots Unbound
(1932), Stony Limits (1934), The
Island of Scotland (1939), The
Luck Poet (1943), In Memoriam
James Joyce (1955) and The Company
I've Kept (1966).
Hugh
MacDiarmid died in
1978.
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