Neil M. Gunn | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Neil Miller Gunn (1891-11-08)8 November 1891 Dunbeath, Caithness, Scotland |
| Died | 15 January 1973(1973-01-15) (aged 81) |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Genre | general fiction |
| Subject | Scottish Highlands |
| Literary movement | 20th centuryScottish Renaissance |
| Notable works | The Silver Darlings (1941) |
| Notable awards | James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction |
| Spouse | Jessie Dallas Frew (m. 1921– |
| Website | |
| neilgunn | |
Neil Miller Gunn (8 November 1891 – 15 January 1973) was a prolific Scottish novelist, critic, and dramatist who emerged as one of the leading lights of theScottish Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. With over twenty novels to his credit, Gunn was arguably the most influentialScottish fiction writer of the first half of the 20th century (with the possible exception ofLewis Grassic Gibbon, the pen name ofJames Leslie Mitchell).[1]: 326, 333, 339
Like his contemporary,Hugh MacDiarmid, Gunn was politically committed to the ideals of both Scottish nationalism and socialism (a difficult balance to maintain for a writer of his time). His fiction deals primarily with theHighland communities and landscapes of his youth,[1]: 325 though the author chose (contra MacDiarmid and his followers) to write almost exclusively in English rather thanScots orGaelic but was heavily influenced in his writing style by the language.[2][3]
Neil Miller Gunn was born in the village ofDunbeath, Caithness. His father was the captain of aherring boat, and Gunn's fascination with the sea and the courage of fishermen can be traced directly back to his childhood memories of his father's work. His mother would also provide Gunn with a crucial model for the types of steadfast, earthy, and tradition-bearing women that would populate many of his works.
Gunn had eight siblings, and when his primary schooling was completed in 1904, he moved south to live with his older sister Mary and her husband Dr. Keiller, the local GP at Kenbank inSt John's Town of Dalry,Kirkcudbrightshire. He continued his education there with tutors including the local schoolmaster, and the writer and poet J.G.Carter "Theodore Mayne". He sat theCivil Service exam in 1907. This led to a move to London, where the adolescent Gunn was exposed to both the exciting world of new political and philosophical ideas as well as to the seamier side of modern urban life. In 1910 Gunn became aCustoms and Excise Officer and was posted back to the Highlands. He would remain a customs officer throughout the First World War and until he was well established as a writer in 1937.[4]
Gunn married Jessie Dallas Frew in 1921 and they settled inInverness, near his permanent excise post at theGlen Mhor distillery.[citation needed]
During the 1920s Gunn began to publish short stories, as well as poems and short essays, in various literary magazines. He also wrote a number of plays. HisThe Ancient Fire was staged at the Lyric Theatre inGlasgow in 1929.[5] His writing brought him into contact with other writers associated with the buddingScottish Renaissance, such as Hugh MacDiarmid,James Bridie,Naomi Mitchison,Eric Linklater,Edwin Muir, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, andGeorge Blake.
Blake andGeorge Malcolm Thomson were running thePorpoise Press, whose mission was to reestablish a national publishing industry for Scotland, by now an imprint ofFaber & Faber, and they became Gunn's publisher in the early 1930s. The first novels Gunn published wereThe Grey Coast in 1926 andThe Lost Glen in 1928. During this period, Gunn was active in theNational Party of Scotland, which formed part of what became theScottish National Party.[6]
Following the publishing success ofHighland River (for which he was awarded the 1937James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction), Gunn was able to resign from the Customs and Excise in 1937 and become a full-time writer. He rented a farmhouse nearStrathpeffer and embarked on his most productive period as a novelist and essayist.Butcher's Broom andThe Silver Darlings are historical novels dealing with theHighland Clearances.[7]Young Art and Old Hector andThe Green Isle of the Great Deep are both fantasies based on Scottish folklore.[8] Gunn's later works in the 1940s and into the 1950s became concerned with issues oftotalitarianism.[1]: 338
Gunn's final full-length work was a discursive autobiography entitledThe Atom of Delight. This text showed the influence which a reading ofEugen Herrigel'sZen in the Art of Archery had upon Gunn. His utilisation of these ideas was not so much mystical as providing a view of the individual in a"small self-contained community, with a long-established way of life, with actions and responses known and defined". He took the playing offiddlereels as an example:"how a human hand could perform, on its own, truly astonishing feats – astonishing in the sense that if thought interfered for a moment the feat was destroyed". This thought-free state could be a source of delight.Zen in the art of Neil Gunn
In his later years, Gunn was involved in broadcasting and also published in diverse journals such asAnarchy Magazine in London,The Glasgow Herald,Holiday (USA),Saltire Review,Scotland's Magazine,Scots Review, andPoint magazine inLeicester.
In his later years Gunn lived on theBlack Isle. He died in Raigmore Hospital in Inverness on 15 January 1973, aged 81.[9]
Gunn is commemorated inMakars' Court, outside theWriters' Museum,Lawnmarket, Edinburgh. Selections for Makars' Court are made by the Writers' Museum; theSaltire Society; theScottish Poetry Library. The Neil Gunn Trust was established in 1986, and in October 1987 a monument to the writer was unveiled on the Heights of Brae, Strathpeffer.[10]
The Neil Gunn Writing Competition was established in 1988 by Ross & Cromarty District Council (later becoming the Highland Council) and the Trust. The competition is now organised by High Life Highland and the Trust.[11]
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