George Mackay Brown
George Mackay Brown (17 October 1921 – 13 April 1996), was a Scottish poet, author and dramatist, whose work has a distinctly Orcadian character. He is considered one of the great Scottish poets of the 20th century.
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[edit] Biography
A Work for Poets
To have carved on the days of our vanity
A sun
A ship
A star
A cornstalk
Also a few marks
From an ancient forgotten time
A child may read
That not far from the stone
A well might open for wayfarers
Here is a work for poets-
Carve the runes
Then be content with silence
George Mackay Brown was the youngest of six children, born to John Brown, a tailor and postman, and Mhairi Mackay,[2] who had been brought up in Braal, Strathy, Sutherland as a native Gaelic speaker.[3] He was born on 17 October 1921.[4] Except for spells as a mature student in mainland Scotland, Mackay Brown lived all of his life in Stromness in the Orkney Islands. Due to illness his father was restricted in his work and received no pension. His uncle Jimmy Brown’s body was found in Stromness harbour in 1935, probably because of suicide;[5] there was a family history of depression.[6]
His youth was marked by poverty[7] and it was from this time that he was affected by tuberculosis. This illness kept him from entering the army at the start of World War II and it afflicted him to such an extent that he could not live a normal working life;[8] however, it was because of this that he had the time and space in which to write. In 1947, Stromness voted to allow pubs to open again, the town having been 'dry' since the 1920s. When the first bar opened in 1948 Mackay Brown first tasted alcohol, which he found to be "a revelation; they flushed my veins with happiness; they washed away all cares and shyness and worries. I remember thinking to myself 'If I could have two pints of beer every afternoon, life would be a great happiness'".[9][10] Subsequently alcohol played a considerable part in his life, although he says, "I never became an alcoholic, mainly because my guts quickly staled".[11]
He was a mature student at Newbattle Abbey College, where the poet Edwin Muir, who would have a great influence on his life as a writer, was warden[12] in the 1951-1952 session.[13] His return for the following session was interrupted by the return of tuberculosis.[14]
Having had poems published in several periodicals, his first volume of poems, The Storm, was published by the Orkney Press in 1954. Edwin Muir wrote in the foreword: "Grace is what I find in these poems". Only three hundred copies were printed, and the imprint sold out within a fortnight. It was acclaimed in the local press.[15]
He studied English literature at the University of Edinburgh.[16] After publication of poems in a literary magazine, with the help of Edwin Muir,[17] Brown had a second volume Loaves and Fishes published by the Hogarth Press in 1959. It was warmly received.[18]
During this period he met, and drank in Rose Street, Edinburgh with, many of the Scottish poets of his time: Sydney Goodsir Smith, Norman MacCaig, Hugh MacDiarmid and others.[19] Here he also met Stella Cartwright, described as "The Muse in Rose Street". Brown was briefly engaged to her, and began a correspondence that would continue till her death in 1985.[20]
In the autumn of 1960 Brown commenced teacher training at Moray House College of Education, but soon was unable to remain in Edinburgh because of ill-health. On his recovery in 1961 he found that he was not suited to this type of work and returned late in the year to his mother's house in Stromness, unemployed.[21] It was at this time that he was received into the Roman Catholic Church, being baptised on 23 December and taking communion on the following day. This followed about twenty-five years of pondering his religious beliefs. But this conversion was not marked by any change in his daily habits, including his drinking.[22] After a period of unemployment, and the rejection of a volume of poetry by the Hogarth Press,[23] Brown did post-graduate study on Gerard Manley Hopkins, although academic study was not to his taste.[24] This provided some occupation and income until 1964, when a volume of poetry, The Year of the Whale, was accepted.[25]
Brown now found himself able to support himself financially for the first time, as he received new commissions.[26] He received a bursary from the Scottish Arts Council in December 1965[27] and he was working on the volume of short stories, A Calendar of Love, which was issued, to critical acclaim, in February 1967[28]. But he was still troubled by his excessive drinking [29] and that of Stella Cartwright.[30]
He died on 13 April 1996.[31] He was buried on April 16th, the feast day of Saint Magnus, with his funeral service held at the Church of Scotland St Magnus Cathedral. The service was presided over by Rev. Mario Conti, Father Michael Spencer and his later biographer Ron Ferguson.[32] His gravestone bears an inscription from the last two lines of his 1996 poem "A work for poets" : "Carve the runes / Then be content with silence".
[edit] Work
Mackay Brown gained most of his inspiration from his native islands, in poems, stories and novels which ranged through time. He drew on the Icelandic Orkneyinga Saga, especially in his novel Magnus. In 1961, he entered the Roman Catholic Church; he drew much inspiration from the traditional Latin liturgy, monasticism and the history of the medieval Church in Orkney. He was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1994 for his Beside the Ocean of Time and won the 1987 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for The Golden Bird: Two Orkney Stories. His autobiography, For the Islands I Sing, was published shortly after his death. A biography George Mackay Brown: The Life by Maggie Fergusson was published in 2006.
Composer Peter Maxwell Davies collaborated with Mackay Brown for many of his Orkney-inspired works.
[edit] Selected works
[edit] Poetry collections
- The Storm (1954)
- Loaves and Fishes (1959)
- The Year of the Whale (1965)
- Fishermen with Ploughs (1971)
- Poems New and Selected (1971)
- Winterfold (1976)
- Voyages (1983)
- The Wreck of the Archangel (1989)
- Tryst on Egilsay (1989)
- Brodgar Poems (1992)
- Foresterhill (1992)
- Following a Lark (1996)
- Water (1996)
- Travellers: poems (2001)
- Collected Poems (2005)
[edit] Short story collections
- A Calendar of Love (1967)
- A Time to Keep (1969)
- Hawkfall (1974)
- The Sun's Net (1976)
- Andrina and Other Stories (1983)
- The Masked Fisherman and Other Stories (1989)
- The Sea-King's Daughter (1991)
- Winter Tales (1995)
- The Island of the Women and Other Stories (1998)
[edit] Plays
- A Spell for Green Corn (1970)
- Three Plays: The Loom of Light, The Well and The Voyage of Saint Brandon (1984)
[edit] Novels
- Greenvoe (1972)
- Magnus (1973)
- Time in a Red Coat (1984)
- The Golden Bird: Two Orkney Stories (1987) won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.
- Vinland (1992)
- Beside the Ocean of Time (1994) shortlisted for Booker Prize and judged Scottish Book of the Year by the Saltire Society
[edit] Essays collections and autobiography
- An Orkney Tapestry (1969)
- Letters from Hamnavoe (1975)
- Under Brinkie's Brae (1979)
- Portrait of Orkney (1981)
- Rockpools and Daffodils: An Orcadian Diary, 1979-91 (1992)
- For the Islands I Sing: An Autobiography (1997)
- Stained Glass Windows (1998)
- Northern Lights (1999) (Includes Poetry)
- The First Wash of Spring (2006)
[edit] Children's Story collection
- The Two Fiddlers (1974)
- Pictures in the Cave (1977)
- Six Lives of Fankle the Cat (1980)
[edit] Discography
- For the islands I sing
[edit] Notes
- ^ George Mackay Brown, "A Work for Poets" (1996)
- ^ George Mackay Brown, For the Islands I Sing, John Murray, 1997, ISBN 0719556287 p. 25
- ^ George Mackay Brown, p. 22
- ^ Maggie Fergusson, p. 8
- ^ Maggie Fergusson, George Mackay Brown: The Life, John Murray, 2006, ISBN 0719556597 p. 36
- ^ Maggie Fergusson, p. 22
- ^ George Mackay Brown, p. 16
- ^ George Mackay Brown, p. 57
- ^ George Mackay Brown, p. 67
- ^ Maggie Fergusson p. 89
- ^ George Mackay Brown, p. 70
- ^ George Mackay Brown, p. 92
- ^ Maggie Fergusson p. 100
- ^ Maggie Fergusson p. 122
- ^ Maggie Fergusson p. 119, p. 128
- ^ George Mackay Brown, p. 114
- ^ Maggie Fergusson p. 134
- ^ Maggie Fergusson p. 156
- ^ George Mackay Brown, p. 122
- ^ George Mackay Brown, p. 136, p.139
- ^ Maggie Fergusson p. 164, p. 168
- ^ Maggie Fergusson p. 168, p. 170.
- ^ Maggie Fergusson p. 170
- ^ George Mackay Brown, p. 173
- ^ Maggie Fergusson p. 173, p. 179
- ^ Maggie Fergusson p. 181
- ^ Maggie Fergusson p. 184
- ^ Maggie Fergusson p. 185
- ^ Maggie Fergusson p. 186
- ^ Maggie Fergusson p. 188
- ^ Obituary from The Independent
- ^ Ron Ferguson p. 363, p. 363
[edit] References
- Bold, Alan (1978), George Mackay Brown, The 'Modern Writers' Series, Barnes & Noble, ISBN 0-064905691
- Ferguson, Maggie (2006), George Mackay Brown: The Life, John Murray, ISBN 0719556597
- Murray, Rowena; Murray, Brian (2004), Interrogation of Silence: The Writings of George Mackay Brown, John Murray, ISBN 0719559294
- Ferguson, Ron (2011), George Mackay Brown: The Wound and the Gift, Saint Andrew Press, ISBN 9780715209356
- Rt Revd Professor the Lord Harries, 'Light from the Orkneys: Edwin Muir and George Mackay Brown' (Public Lecture given at Gresham College, 5 February 2009)
[edit] External links
- Article "Douglas Dunn: Finished Fragrance: The Poems of George Mackay Brown. Poetry Nation No 2 - 1974
- "Not just Orkney's greatest poet, but Britain's" 14 December 2007 Guardian
- Profile and poems written and audio at Poetry Archive
- BBC Scotland personal profile BBC Scotland Mackay works profile
- Profile and poems at the Poetry Foundation
- Portraits at Scottish National Galleries
- 1921 births
- 1996 deaths
- Scots Makars
- Cholmondeley Award winners
- Converts to Roman Catholicism from Calvinism
- People from Orkney
- Roman Catholic writers
- Scottish autobiographers
- Scottish Catholic poets
- Scottish dramatists and playwrights
- Scottish essayists
- Scottish novelists
- Scottish poets
- Scottish Roman Catholics
