Lewis Grassic Gibbon - A
Scots Quair
Part of the "Our Class, Our Culture" series of educational meetings held
in the name of the Morning Star - the only english language Socialist
daily paper
Sunset Song Parts 1-3
Sunset Song Parts 4-6
Lewis Grassic Gibbon was born James Leslie Mitchell at
the dawn of the twentieth century in 1901 in Aberdeenshire. Spending
most of his childhood in Arbuthnott, a farming community in the Mearns,
his family and community's tie to the land was to create a love-hate
relationship between this area and the writer which lasted until his
early death in 1935.
Mitchell left school early after arguments with the school authorities
in Mackie Academy, Stonehaven. As a journalist in Aberdeen and briefly
in Glasgow, he became increasingly involved in left-wing politics and
helped to form the Aberdeen Soviet. His short experience of Glasgow, its
slums, and its Red Clydeside movement led him to later criticise the
Scottish Renaissance movement for not dealing with urban issues and the
horrific slums of Glasgow.
Having been sacked from the 'Scottish Farmer' paper for fraudulent
expense claims, Mitchell later joined the army more for the food and
shelter it offered than for any patriotic reason. Although Mitchell
hated life in the army, it did allow him to travel, in particular to the
Middle East and Egypt, which fuelled his interest in ancient
civilisations and the theory of diffusionism. His military experiences
in the Middle East inspired his first short stories and much of his
fiction and non-fiction.
From 1930 to 1934, eleven novels, two books of short stories, three
anthropological books and an 'Intelligent Man's Guide to Albyn' with
Hugh MacDiarmid entitled Scottish Scene, were published under the names
Mitchell and Gibbon. On his death in 1935, outlines of many other books,
from novels to an autobiography were left.
The most important of this author’s vast output in such a small amount
of time is the trilogy of novels, A Scots Quair published under the name
Lewis Grassic Gibbon (taken from the author's mother's maiden name). The
Quair, and in particular Sunset Song, has outlived much of his other
work to become a Scottish classic.
Works
Lewis Grassic Gibbon is the more distinctly Scottish alter-ego of James
Leslie Mitchell, and although there are many interesting books written
under the Mitchell name, the writer’s best and most enduring works were
published under the name Gibbon. Mitchell’s Stained Radiance and The
Thirteenth Disciple help to give us a glimpse of the life of the writer
and Spartacus is an inspiring novel which gives insight into Mitchell’s
political and religious thoughts, yet the Scottish books show more
clearly his talents as a writer and thinker.
Lewis Grassic Gibbon's most famous work and indeed his greatest
achievement is A Scots Quair. The Quair (meaning book), is a trilogy
which was published over three years as Sunset Song (1932), Cloud Howe
(1933), and Grey Granite (1934). Following the life of its heroine Chris
Guthrie, the three novels take the reader from the Great War to the
growing communism of the 1920s and are innovative in their style,
language and thought.
Sunset Song is Gibbon's most loved work and, out of the three Quair
novels, the most satisfying to read as a single book. The Prelude to the
novel can be off-putting to the reader at first because of its
rollercoaster ride through the history of the village of Kinraddie in a
language which takes a while to get used to. The language and style of
the novel are groundbreaking in that they create a version of Scots
which is universal in its nature and which draws the reader in by using
an inclusive 'you' voice which unites the heroine's voice with the
'speak of the Mearns' and indeed the voice of the reader. At first
however, the Prelude can appear difficult and this is why Gibbon himself
suggested that the reader could skip it at first and return to it later.
The title of the Prelude, 'The Unfurrowed Field', and its introduction
to all the villagers of Kinraddie, helps to emphasise the cyclical
nature of the novel which follows the stages of Chris Guthrie's life
through comparisons with the stages of the farming year.
The young Chris must choose between life on the land, her Scottish
identity, and the English part of her which draws her away from home
towards books and education. Yet even once she has made her decision,
the way of life of her community is altered forever by the Great War.
Every aspect of Chris and Kinraddie's life is affected, from the
destruction of the land by the cutting down of trees, to the destruction
of her home life in the change which war brings to her husband, to the
loss of the old songs of the place which are replaced by the blues from
America. However, it is important that while Sunset Song mourns the loss
of a past age, it is not hopeless. The images of light and the morning
star in the closing pages of the novel anticipate the rest of the
trilogy, emphasizing Gibbon's desire to construct a future rather than
simply mourn the loss of a Golden Age. Rev Robert Colquohoun's speech at
the end of Sunset Song, importantly situated at the standing stones
which are Chris's connection to the past throughout the novel, gives the
events of the novel a place in a line of history which looks back as
well as looking forward.
Sunset Song is a rounded novel in itself, featuring festive and comic
episodes within a grand tragic trajectory, but when seen as part of the
Quair as a whole, it sets a problem which the other two books attempt to
answer. Often seen as Sunset Song's poorer companions, Cloud Howe and
Grey Granite evaluate Robert Colquohoun's (Chris's second husband) and
Ewan's (Chris's son) solutions for the future of Scotland. Robert's
Christian socialism and Ewan's communism both seek to raise Scotland
from the ashes of war but are seen by Chris to be 'pillars of cloud',
followed by men who seek solutions which cannot endure. Running through
the Quair is the concept that only the ever-changing land can endure,
and only Chris, who is simultaneously connected to the land and
distanced from it, can fully realise this.
Moving from village, to town, to city A Scots Quair is packed with
lively and comical characters and situations which make it an
entertaining read. However it is also an exploration of the mythical and
symbolic (particularly in the idea of Chris as a symbol of Scotland) as
well as an exploration of religious and political movements. It is
perhaps best captured by Kurt Wittig when he describes the three levels
on which the Quair works: 'the personal, the social, and the mythical'.
Gibbon's other most enjoyable work is probably his short story 'Smeddum'
which describes the life of the lively Meg and the conflict with her
children, and his essay on 'The Land' which helps to describe his
love-hate relationship with the land. This essay gives a helpful
background to Sunset Song and illustrates Gibbon's frustration at the
necessary connection between the land and those who work on it. The
darker aspects of this connection are again explored in his short
stories 'Greenden' and 'Clay', the latter story again raising a dilemma
between the land and university while emphasising the importance of
women's experience in the early twentieth century.
Reading Lists
Primary
Works published under the name of James Leslie Mitchell
Hanno, or The Future of Exploration (1928)
Stained Radiance: A Fictionist's Prelude (1930)
The Thirteenth Disciple (1931)
The Calends of Cairo (1931)
Three Go Back (1932)
Persian Dawns, Egyptian Nights (1932)
The Lost Trumpet (1932)
Image and Superscription (1933)
Gay Hunter (1934)
The Conquest of the Maya (1934)
Under the name of Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Sunset Song (1932)
Cloud Howe (1933)
Grey Granite (1934)
A Scots Quair (1946)
Scottish Scene: or, The Intelligent Man's Guide to Albyn (1934)
Niger: The Life of Mungo Park (1934)
A Scots Hairst: Essays and Short Stories ed. by Ian S Munro (1967)
Smeddum: Short Stories and Essays ed. by D M Budge (1980)
The Speak of the Mearns ed. by Ian Campbell (1982)
Under the name of JLM and LGG combined
Nine Against The Unknown: A Record of Geographical Exploration (1934)
Secondary
Campbell, Ian, Lewis Grassic Gibbon (1985)
Ehland, Christoph, Picaresque Perspectives - Exiled Identities: A
Structural and Methodological Analysis of the Picaresque as a Literary
Archetype in the Works of James Leslie Mitchell (2003)
Geddes, Clarke, Nemesis in the Mearns (1996) (fictionalisation)
Gifford, Douglas, Neil M Gunn and Lewis Grassic Gibbon (1983)
McCulloch, Margery Palmer, and Dunnigan, Sarah M, editors, A Flame in
the Mearns Lewis Grassic Gibbon: A Centenary Celebration, Association
for Scottish Literary Studies Occasional Papers: Number 13 (2003)
Munro, Ian S, Leslie Mitchell: Lewis Grassic Gibbon (1966)
Whitfield, Peter, Grassic Gibbon and his World (1994)
Young, Douglas F, Beyond the Sunset: A Study of James Leslie Mitchell
(Lewis Grassic Gibbon) (1973)
Here is Sunset Song (which
is recognised as
by being by far the best of the three) for you to read here... (Note: In 2005 Sunset Song was named the "Best Scottish Book of All Time" at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.)
A SCOTS QUAIR
SUNSET SONG | CLOUD HOWE | GREY GRANITE
by
Lewis Grassic Gibbon Sunset
Songfirst published 1932
(pdf) Cloud Howefirst published
1933 (pdf) Grey Granitefirst published
1934 (pdf)
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Lewis Grassic Gibbon was born James Leslie Mitchell at
the dawn of the twentieth century in 1901 in Aberdeenshire. Spending
most of his childhood in Arbuthnott, a farming community in the Mearns,
his family and community's tie to the land was to create a love-hate
relationship between this area and the writer which lasted until his
early death in 1935.