Douglas Young as a personality was one of the most colourful and memorable figures of the twentieth-century Scottish Renaissance; as a poet and essayist his influence in promulgating and furthering its ideals is fundamental, and at first sight remarkably disproportionate to the relatively small bulk of his writings.

Young’s father was employed in India by a Dundee jute firm, and the child, whose mother had returned home on his father’s specific insistence that he should be born in Scotland, was taken to the family place of work soon after his birth. From the age of eight he attended Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh, acquiring a voracious interest in history and classics and a reputation for sharpness and wit. At

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First published 10 September 2003

Citation: McClure, J. Derrick. "Douglas Young". The Literary Encyclopedia. 10 September 2003.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5481, accessed 20 November 2009.]