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), J. Derrick McClure (University of Aberdeen)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1943

Places

Scotland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Autobiography (literary)

Resources

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 …

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3373 words

Citation: Matthews, Kirsten. "Lucky Poet". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 April 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10059, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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