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Alasdair Gray

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Alasdair Gray
BornAlasdair Gray
(1934-12-28) 28 December 1934 (age 89)
Glasgow, Scotland
OccupationNovelist, artist, playwright, academic, teacher, poet
GenreScience fiction, dystopianism, surrealism, realism
Literary movementPostmodern literature
Notable worksLanark: A Life in Four Books
1982, Janine
Poor Things
The Book of Prefaces
Website
www.alasdairgray.info

Alasdair Gray (born 28 December 1934) is a Scottish writer and artist. His most acclaimed work is his first novel, Lanark, published in 1981 and written over a period of almost 30 years. It is now regarded as a classic, and was described by The Guardian as "one of the landmarks of 20th-century fiction."[1] His novel Poor Things (1992) won the Whitbread Novel Award[2] and the Guardian Fiction Prize.[3] He describes himself as a civic nationalist[4] (albeit one deeply critical of English immigration into Scotland) [4] and a republican.

Gray's works combine elements of realism, fantasy, and science fiction, plus clever use of typography and his own illustrations. He has also written on politics, in support of socialism and Scottish independence, and on the history of English literature. He has been described by author Will Self as "a creative polymath with an integrated politico-philosophic vision",[5] and as "a great writer, perhaps the greatest living in this archipelago today"[6] and by himself as "a fat, spectacled, balding, increasingly old Glasgow pedestrian".[7] His artwork is held by museums including Kelvingrove & The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History[8]

Life

File:Unlikely Stories, Mostly.jpg
Book cover designed and illustrated by Alasdair Gray.

Gray was born in Riddrie, east Glasgow. His father had been wounded in the First World War and worked at the time in a factory, while his mother worked in a shop. During the Second World War, Gray was evacuated to Perthshire and then Lanarkshire, experiences which he drew on in his later fiction. The family lived on a council estate, and Gray received his education from a combination of state education, (at Whitehill Secondary School), public libraries, and the BBC: "the kind of education British governments now consider useless, especially for British working class children", as he later commented. He studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1952 to 1957, and taught there from 1958 to 1962. It was as a student that he first began what would become the novel Lanark. The artist crossed paths with a later student at Glasgow School of Art, Stewart Bowman Johnson.

After his graduation, Gray worked as a scene and portrait painter, as well as an independent artist and writer. His first plays were broadcast on radio and television in 1968. Between 1972 and 1974, he participated in a writing group organised by Philip Hobsbaum, which also included James Kelman, Liz Lochhead, Tom Leonard, Aonghas MacNeacail and Jeff Torrington. From 1977 to 1979, he was Writer in Residence at Glasgow University. In 2001, he became, with Tom Leonard and James Kelman, joint Professor of the Creative Writing programme at Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities.

Gray illustrates his books himself, and has produced many murals as well as paintings. One of his longest-lasting murals can be seen in the Ubiquitous Chip restaurant[9] in the West End of Glasgow, and more recently in the Hillhead subway station.[9]

In 2001, he stood as the candidate of the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association for the post of Rector of the University of Glasgow, but was eventually narrowly defeated by Greg Hemphill. Formerly a supporter of the Scottish National Party and the Scottish Socialist Party, at the 2010 UK general election he supported his local Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate.[10] He describes himself as a civic nationalist, stating in his 1992 book Why Scots Should Rule Scotland: "The title of this book may sound threatening to those who live in Scotland but were born and educated elsewhere, so I had better explain that by Scots I mean everyone in Scotland who is eligible to vote".[11] Nonetheless, following an essay written in 2012, in which he characterised English people working in Scotland as either long-term "settlers" or short-term "colonists" Gray - though writing with approval about the former[4] - found himself being accused of being anti-English, and a critic of English immigration into Scotland. He disputes this.[12] Gray's full essay was published on the Word Power Books website [13] Gray responded to criticism of his essay by stating that "...many of [his] best friends are English".[4]

He has been married twice: first to Inge Sorenson (1961–1970), and in 1991 to Morag McAlpine. McAlpine died after a short illness in May 2014.[14] He has one son, Andrew, born in 1964. He still lives in the West End of Glasgow.

His ceiling mural for The Auditorium of the Oran Mor arts & entertainment venue on Byres Road in Glasgow is one of the largest works of art in Scotland.[15]

Gray frequently uses the quotation, "Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation", which is engraved in the Canongate Wall of the Scottish Parliament building. He attributes the quote to Canadian author Dennis Lee.[16]

Gray painted the artwork for Scottish band De Rosa's second studio album, Prevention, which was released in 2009.

In June 2015 he was seriously injured in a fall at his home in Glasgow.[17]

Quotes

Book cover designed and illustrated by Alasdair Gray.
  • "Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation." (Various works; he attributes it to the Canadian author Dennis Lee.[16] )
  • "It is plain that the vaster the social unit, the less possible is true democracy." Lanark, p. 289
  • "Who did the council fight?"
"It split in two and fought itself."
"That's suicide!"
"No, ordinary behaviour. The efficient half eats the less efficient half and grows stronger. War is just a violent way of doing what half the people do calmly in peacetime: using the other half for food, heat, machinery and sexual pleasure. Man is the pie that bakes and eats himself, and the recipe is separation."
"I refuse to believe men kill each other just to make their enemies rich."
"How can men recognize their real enemies when their family, schools and work teach them to struggle with each other and to believe law and decency come from the teachers?"
"My son won't be taught that," said Lanark firmly.
"You have a son?"
"Not yet." Lanark, p. 411
"Everyone sees life through their job. To the doctor the world is a hospital, to the broker it is a stock exchange, to the lawyer a vast criminal court."

Literary works

Dramatic works (incomplete)

Non-fiction

Other Appearances

Music

  • Cindytalk Wappinschaw (Touched Recordings, 1994) - Gray appears on "Wheesht" reading from Book 2 of Lanark[19]
  • Future Pilot AKA Secrets From The Clockhouse (Creeping Bent, 2006) - Gray performs on "Equations of Love"[20]
  • LAN Formatique The Sadness of Distances (Signifier, 2012) - Gray appears on "Mind the Gap" (reading from the poem of the same name), "1st of March, 1990" (reading from the poem of the same name), and "The Stars Are But Thistles" (reading from the poem "Dictators").[21]

Anthologies

  • (Contributor) Pax Edina: The One O' Clock Gun Anthology (Edinburgh, 2010)[22]
  • (Contributor) "Elsewhere: Here" (Cargo Publishing/McSweeney's, 2012)
  • (Contributor) Beacons: Stories for Our Not So Distant Future (Oneworld Publications, 2013)

Books about Alasdair Gray

Academic

  • The Arts of Alasdair Gray, Robert Crawford and Thom Nairn (1991)
  • Alasdair Gray, Stephen Bernstein (1999)
  • Alasdair Gray: A Unique Scottish Magus, Joy Hendry (ed.) (2000)
  • Alasdair Gray: Critical Appreciations and a Bibliography, Phil Moores (ed.) (2001; includes contributions by Gray himself.)
  • La Scozia di Alasdair Gray, Aurelio Pasini, Mobydick (2001)
  • Postmodern Strategies in Alasdair Gray's Lanark: A Life in Four Books, Luis de Juan (2003)
  • Shades of Gray: Science Fiction, History and the Problem of Postmodernism in the Work of Alasdair Gray, Dietmar Böhnke (2004)
  • Alasdair Gray: The Fiction of Communion, Gavin Miller (2005)
  • Voices from Modern Scotland: Janice Galloway, Alasdair Gray, Bernard Sellin (coord.) (2007)
  • Alasdair Gray, le faiseur d'Ecosse, Camille Manfredi, Presses Universitaires de Rennes (2012)
  • Alasdair Gray: Ink for Worlds, Camille Manfredi (ed.) (2014; includes contributions by Gray himself.)

Biographical

  • Alasdair Gray: A Secretary's Biography, Rodge Glass (2008)
  • A Life in Pictures (2010) (illustrated autobiography)

References

  1. ^ "Alasdair Gray". The Guardian. London. 22 July 2008.
  2. ^ "Alasdair Gray". Nls.uk. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  3. ^ http://facstaff.unca.edu/moseley/guardian.html
  4. ^ a b c d Peterkin, Tom (16 December 2012). "Alasdair Gray attacks English for 'colonising' arts". The Scotsman. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
  5. ^ Moores ed. Alasdair Gray: Critical Appreciations and a Bibliography (2001) p. 4.
  6. ^ Chris M (12 January 2006). "Blog Archive » Alisdair Gray: An Introduction". will-self.com. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  7. ^ Gray, The Ends of Our Tethers, Dustjacket (recto).
  8. ^ "Connoisseur of the curious". Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  9. ^ a b http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-alasdair-gray-reimagined-glasgow
  10. ^ Currie, Brian; Settle, Michael (21 April 2010). "LibDems enjoy Clegg bounce in Scotland at expense of SNP". The Herald. Retrieved 25 October 2010.
  11. ^ Williamson, Kevin (2009). "Language and culture in a rediscovered Scotland". In Perryman, Mark (ed.). Breaking up Britain: Four Nations after a Union (PDF). London: Lawrence & Wishart. pp. 53–67. ISBN 978-1-905007-96-7.
  12. ^ Miller, Phil (18 December 2012). "Author Gray hits back at anti-English claims". The Herald. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  13. ^ "Word Power Books | Settlers and Colonists by Alasdair Gray". Word-power.co.uk. 20 December 2012. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  14. ^ "Private funeral for wife of author Gray". Herald Scotland. 21 May 2014. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  15. ^ Andrew Davies-Cole (22 October 2009). "Gray's anatomy of the bigger picture". Herald Scotland. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  16. ^ a b Gray, Alasdair (5 May 2007). "Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation". The Herald. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  17. ^ http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/18/alasdair-gray-seriously-injured-after-fall
  18. ^ "Alasdair (James) Gray Biography". http://biography.jrank.org. Retrieved 13 September 2014. {{cite web}}: External link in |website= (help)
  19. ^ "Cindytalk - Wappinschaw". Discogs. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  20. ^ "Future Pilot A.K.A. - Secrets From The Clockhouse". Discogs. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  21. ^ "LAN Formatique - The Sadness Of Distances". Discogs. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  22. ^ "Leamington Books". Leamington Books. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
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