Hugh MacDiarmid, Lucky Poet

Kirsten Matthews (University of Glasgow)

Ed. by J. Derrick McClure, University of Aberdeen
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.3: Scottish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Edinburgh), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), J. Derrick McClure (University of Aberdeen), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1943

Places

Scotland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Autobiography (literary)

Resources

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In the author’s note to the first edition of

Lucky Poet

, published in 1943, Hugh MacDiarmid describes the book as an early example of the “semi-imaginative autobiography” which “is one of the coming literary forms which will play a great role in literature after this War” (1994, p. xvii. All further refs to this edn.). Autobiographical writing – and particularly, writing which challenges the imaginative boundaries between autobiography and fiction – has indeed seen a tremendous surge in popularity both with writers and with critics since the 1940s. Even in the current critical climate, however, in which autobiography is an increasingly well-documented subject, MacDiarmid’s

Lucky Poet

remains a problematic work. Its tone and style vary continuously, resisting confinement to…

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3373 words

Citation: Matthews, Kirsten. "Lucky Poet". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 April 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10059, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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