George Douglas Brown

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), J. Derrick McClure (University of Aberdeen)

Dates

Born 26 Jan 1869
Died 28 Aug 1902
Activity 1895-1902

Places

Born in Scotland
Active in Scotland

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Resources

George Douglas Brown’s reputation rests on a single short novel, The House with the Green Shutters; but it is one of the select company of individual works which instantly and irrevocably change the literary scene from which they emerge.

Brown was born in the village of Ochiltree in the south-west of Scotland, eleven miles inland from Ayr. He was the illegitimate son of a local farmer, also called George Douglas Brown, and Sarah Gemmell, a dairymaid of Irish parentage; and the social stigma of his illegitimacy, which blighted his childhood, has been seen as underlying the grim and embittered tone of his novel. His mother, a woman of forceful and independent personality, was the principal figure in his upbringing. His …

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1830 words

Citation: McClure, J. Derrick. "George Douglas Brown". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 June 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=11800, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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