Memorial to Lewis Grassic Gibbon inArbuthnott kirkyard
James Leslie Mitchell[1] (13 February 1901 – 7 February 1935), known by the pseudonymLewis Grassic Gibbon (Scots pronunciation:[ˈluːɪsˈɡrasɪkˈɡɪbən]), was a Scottish writer. He was best known forA 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 inWelwyn 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 fromperitonitis, brought on by a perforatedulcer.
Mitchell gained attention from his earliest attempts at fiction, notably fromH. G. Wells, but it was his trilogy entitledA Scots Quair, and in particular its first bookSunset Song, with which he made his mark.A Scots Quair, with its combination of stream-of-consciousness, lyrical use ofdialect, and social realism, is considered to be among the defining works of the 20th centuryScottish 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 beenturned into serials by BBC Scotland, written byBill Craig, withVivien Heilbron as Chris. Additionally, Sunset Song has been adapted intoa film, released in 2015.[9]Spartacus, a novel set in the famous slave revolt, is his best-known full-length work outside this trilogy.
In 1932 he used the pseudonym Lewis Grassic Gibbon for the first time when 'Sunset Song' was published in August of that year. The name, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, is a variation of his maternal grandmother's name Lilias Grassick Gibbon.[10]
In 1934 Mitchell collaborated withHugh MacDiarmid onScottish Scene, which included three of Gibbon's short stories. His stories were collected posthumously inA Scots Hairst (1969). Possibly his best-known is "Smeddum", a Scots word which could be best translated as the colloquial term "guts". LikeA Scots Quair, it is set in north-east Scotland with strong female characters.[11] In 1976 the BBC produced aPlay for Today,Clay, Smeddum and Greenden, a dramatisation of three of his short stories byBill Craig.[12] Also notable is his essayThe Land.[citation needed]
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 ofSaint Ternan) ofArbuthnott Church, nowadays inAberdeenshire.
In 2016Sunset Song was voted Scotland's favourite novel in the BBC Love to Read campaign. A feature article on the novel has been written byNicola Sturgeon, who edited a recent edition.[13]
Lewis Grassic Gibbon published 17 books during his life, as well as one published posthumously. 11 of them were printed under his real name of James Leslie Mitchell. Five were published under his pseudonym, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, with his final work published while he was alive, was published under both names.
Nine Against the Unknown: A Record of Geographical Exploration (1934)[16] - Published under both names of Lewis Grassic Gibbon and James Leslie Mitchell.
^Manson, John, "Lewis Grassic Gibbon: A Biography", in Mathers, Neil (ed.),Epoch 9: December 1996, The Corbie Press, Montrose, pp. 12 -14,ISSN0967-6856
^Baxter, Alison (2024),Another Song at Sunset: Jean Baxer, Scots poet and friend of Lewis Grassic Gibbon, pp. 161 & 162,ISBN9798340910509
^Bonnar, Mark; Mullan, Peter; Deyn, Agyness; Guthrie, Kevin (4 December 2015),Sunset Song,archived from the original on 18 June 2018, retrieved31 March 2017
Douglas Gifford,Neil M. Gunn & Lewis Grassic Gibbon (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1983)
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 andJames Joyce', in Dymock and Palmer McCulloch (eds),Scottish and International Modernisms (Glasgow: ASLS, 2011), pp. 101–115
Scott Lyall, "J. Leslie Mitchell/Lewis Grassic Gibbon and Exploration", inScottish Literary Review 4.1, Spring/Summer 2012, pp. 131–150
Scott Lyall, ed.,The International Companion to Lewis Grassic Gibbon (Glasgow: Scottish Literature International, ASLS, 2015)ISBN9781908980137
William K. Malcolm,A Blasphemer and Reformer: A Study of J. Leslie Mitchell/Lewis Grassic Gibbon (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1984)
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
Margery Palmer McCulloch and Sarah Dunnigan (eds),A Flame in the Mearns (Glasgow: ASLS, 2003)
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)
