{"id":15914,"date":"2005-06-01T19:42:42","date_gmt":"2005-06-01T19:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=15914"},"modified":"2021-02-12T21:50:20","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T21:50:20","slug":"a-few-thoughts-on-literary-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2005\/06\/01\/a-few-thoughts-on-literary-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"A few thoughts on literary matters"},"content":{"rendered":"

by John Manson<\/h2>\n

John Manson is a Sutherland-born, Dumfriesshire-based poet, reviewer and translator. He has published a number of poetry collections including East Sutherland and Other Poems<\/cite>. He has also translated Victor Serges, Carnets<\/cite> (1944), available at Victorserge<\/a> After reading Allan Armstrong\u2019s Beyond Broadswords and Bayonets<\/cite> (E&L<\/cite> 5\/6) he wrote making the following helpful comments.<\/p>\n

A few thoughts – and references – on literary matters in your paper – so \u2018out of context\u2019<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think the Little White Rose<\/q> (E&L<\/cite> 5\/6, reference 47) is a deliberate reference to a Jacobite emblem. It was adapted from Compton Mackenzie\u2019s words, You know our wild rose? It is white, and small, and prickly, and possesses a sharp, sweet scent which makes the heart ache<\/q> (MacDairmid<\/cite> by Alan Bold, Paladin, London, 1990, p.489).<\/p>\n

The longest discussion I know of of Clann Albain (E&L<\/cite> 5\/6, p.28) is in Alan Riach\u2019s Hugh MacDairmid\u2019s Epic Poetry<\/cite> (Edinburgh, 1991, p. 4-14). This goes on to discuss the second Clann Albain, openly formed in 1948 and which dealt with land restoration in Wester Ross, and also discusses Clann Albain as a title for five books of MacDairmid\u2019s poetry which were never published under that title. The first Clann Albain is also discussed in Fionn McColla\u2019s Too Long in this Condition<\/cite> (Thurso, 1975, p. 92-95). I\u2019ve never seen any primary document about the first Clann Albain and never heard the membership described as more than six.<\/p>\n

However, did you notice MacDairmid\u2019s poem The Covenanters<\/cite> in Second Hymn to Lenin and Other Poems<\/cite> (1935), published in The Complete Poems of Hugh MacDarmid, Volume 1<\/cite>, edited by Michael Grieve and W. R. Allen (Penguin Modern Classics, Harmondsworth, 1985, p. 551).<\/p>\n

Gibbon\u2019s notes (E&L<\/cite> 5\/6, p. 28, plus reference 84) for his novel on the Covenanters are now printed in Smeddum – A Lewis Grassic Gibbon Anthology<\/cite>, edited by Valentina Bold (Canongate, Edinburgh, 2001, p. 807-9).<\/p>\n

You refer to Angus Cameron (E&L<\/cite>, p.46, reference 160), but I wonder if you know of David Craig\u2019s novel King Cameron<\/cite> (Carcanet, Manchester, 1991) about the rising in Strathtay in 1797. He has a sequel, The Unbroken Harp<\/cite>, for which he is trying to find a publisher.<\/p>\n

Best Wishes,<\/p>\n

John Manson<\/p>\n

The Covenanters<\/h3>\n