Memorial to Lewis Grassic Gibbon in Arbuthnott kirkyard
Lewis Grassic Gibbon (Scots pronunciation:[ˈluːisˈɡræsɪkˈɡibɪn]) was the pseudonym of James Leslie Mitchell[1] (13 February 1901 – 7 February 1935), a Scottish writer. He was best known for A Scots Quair, a trilogy set in the north-east of Scotland in the early 20th century, of which all three parts have been serialised on BBC television.
When he married Rebecca Middleton (known as Ray) in 1925, they settled in Welwyn Garden City.[7] He began writing full time in 1929, producing numerous books and shorter works under his real name and his pseudonym. He suffered an early death in 1935 from peritonitis, brought on by a perforated ulcer.
Mitchell gained attention from his earliest attempts at fiction, notably from H. G. Wells, but it was his trilogy entitled A Scots Quair, and in particular its first book Sunset Song, with which he made his mark. A Scots Quair, with its combination of stream-of-consciousness, lyrical use of dialect, and social realism, is considered to be among the defining works of the 20th century Scottish Renaissance. It tells the story of Chris Guthrie, a young woman growing up in the north-east of Scotland in the early 20th century. All three parts of the trilogy have been turned into serials by BBC Scotland, written by Bill Craig, with Vivien Heilbron as Chris. Additionally, Sunset Song has been adapted into a film, released in 2015.[8]Spartacus, a novel set in the famous slave revolt, is his best-known full-length work outside this trilogy.
In 1934 Mitchell collaborated with Hugh MacDiarmidonScottish Scene, which included three of Gibbon's short stories. His stories were collected posthumously in A Scots Hairst (1969). Possibly his best-known is "Smeddum", a Scots word which could be best translated as the colloquial term "guts". Like A Scots Quair, it is set in north-east Scotland with strong female characters.[9] In 1976 the BBC produced a Play for Today, "Clay, Smeddum and Greenden", a dramatisation of three of his short stories by Bill Craig.[10] As of February 2024 it is available on BBC iPlayer for 11 months.[11] Also notable is his essay The Land.
The Grassic Gibbon Centre, attached to the local village hall, was established in Arbuthnott in 1991 to commemorate the author's life. Within it is a small museum about his life and work, as well as a café. There is a memorial to him and his wife, and other members of the Mitchell family, in the western corner of the village churchyard (parish church of Saint Ternan) of Arbuthnott Church, nowadays in Aberdeenshire.
In 2016 Sunset Song was voted Scotland's favourite novel in the BBC Love to Read campaign. A feature article on the novel has been written by Nicola Sturgeon, who edited a recent edition.[12]
^Manson, John, "Lewis Grassic Gibbon: A Biography", in Mathers, Neil (ed.), Epoch 9: December 1996, The Corbie Press, Montrose, pp. 12 -14, ISSN0967-6856
^Bonnar, Mark; Mullan, Peter; Deyn, Agyness; Guthrie, Kevin (4 December 2015), Sunset Song, archived from the original on 18 June 2018, retrieved 31 March 2017
Douglas Gifford, Neil M. Gunn & Lewis Grassic Gibbon (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1983)
Scott Lyall, ed., The International Companion to Lewis Grassic Gibbon (Glasgow: Scottish Literature International, ASLS, 2015) ISBN9781908980137
John Manson, "Lewis Grassic Gibbon: A Biography", in Mathers, Neil (ed.), Epoch 9, The Corbie Press, Montrose, pp. 12 - 14, ISSN0967-6856
Raymond Vettese, "Lewis Grassic Gibbon and Diffusionism", in Mathers, Neil (ed.), Epoch 9, The Corbie Press, Montrose, pp. 15 - 17, ISSN0967-6856
John Manson, "Grassic Gibbon in Print", in Mathers, Neil (ed.), Epoch 9, The Corbie Press, Montrose, pp. 17 &- 18, ISSN0967-6856
Scott Lyall, "J. Leslie Mitchell/Lewis Grassic Gibbon and Exploration", in Scottish Literary Review 4.1, Spring/Summer 2012, pp. 131–150
Scott Lyall, '"East is West and West is East": Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Quest for Ultimate Cosmopolitanism', in Gardiner et al. (eds), Scottish Literature and Postcolonial Literature (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011), pp. 136–146
Scott Lyall, 'On Cosmopolitanism and Late Style: Lewis Grassic Gibbon and James Joyce', in Dymock and Palmer McCulloch (eds), Scottish and International Modernisms (Glasgow: ASLS, 2011), pp. 101–115
Margery Palmer McCulloch and Sarah Dunnigan (eds), A Flame in the Mearns (Glasgow: ASLS, 2003)
William K. Malcolm, A Blasphemer and Reformer: A Study of J. Leslie Mitchell/Lewis Grassic Gibbon (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1984)
Iain S. Munro, Leslie Mitchell: Lewis Grassic Gibbon, (Oliver and Boyd, 1966)
Douglas F. Young, Beyond the Sunset: A Study of James Leslie Mitchell(Lewis Grassic Gibbon) (Aberdeen: Impulse Publications, 1973)
