Violet Jacob
Violet Jacob | |
---|---|
![]() Violet Jacob, by Henry Harris Brown (1864–1948) | |
Born | Violet Augusta Mary Frederica Kennedy-Erskine 1 September 1863 |
Died | 9 September 1946 Marywell House, nearKirriemuir | (aged 83)
Resting place | Dun kirkyard |
Nationality | Scottish |
Known for | Poetry in Scots |
Spouse | Arthur Otway Jacob (m. 1894–1936) |
Children | 1 |
Violet Jacob(1 September 1863 – 9 September 1946) was a Scottish writer known especially for her historical novelFlemingtonand for her poetry, mainly inScots.She was described by a fellow Scottish poetHugh MacDiarmidas "the most considerable of contemporary vernacular poets".
Early life
[edit]Jacob was bornViolet Augusta Mary Frederica Kennedy-Erskine,at theHouse of Dun,[1]the daughter of William Henry Kennedy-Erskine (1 July 1828 – 15 September 1870) ofDun, Forfarshire,a captain in the17th Lancersand Catherine Jones (died 13 February 1914), the only daughter of William Jones ofHenllys,Carmarthenshire.Her father was the son of John Kennedy-Erskine (1802–1831) ofDunandAugusta FitzClarence(1803–1865), the illegitimate daughter ofKing William IVandDorothy Jordan.She was a great-granddaughter ofArchibald Kennedy, 1st Marquess of Ailsa.
The area ofMontrosewhere her family seat ofDunwas situated was the setting for much of her fiction. She married, at St John's Episcopal Church, Princes Street, Edinburgh, on 27 October 1894, Arthur Otway Jacob (1867–1936),[1]an Irishmajorin theBritish Army,and accompanied him to India where he was serving. Her bookDiaries and letters from India 1895–1900is about their stay in the Central Indian town ofMhow.The couple had one son, Harry, born in 1895, who died as a soldier at theBattle of the Sommein 1916. Arthur died in 1936, and Violet returned to live atKirriemuir,in Angus. She died of heart disease on 9 September 1946 and was buried beside her husband at the graveyard at Dun.[2]
Scots poetry
[edit]Violet Jacob was described byHugh MacDiarmidas "by far the most considerable of contemporary vernacular poets",[3]a view he did not rescind over a fifty-year period.[4]She was particularly known for her poems in the Angus dialect. Her poetry was associated with that of Scots revivalists likeMarion Angus,Alexander GrayandLewis Spence,who drew their inspiration from early Scots poets such asRobert HenrysonandWilliam Dunbar,rather than fromRobert Burns.[5]
Jacob is commemorated inMakars' Court,outside theWriters' Museum,Lawnmarket,Edinburgh. Selections for Makars' Court are made by the Writers' Museum,The Saltire SocietyandThe Scottish Poetry Library.In 1936 she was awarded an honorary LLD degree by Edinburgh University.[6]
Oh, tell me what was on yer road, ye roarin' norlan wind
As ye cam' blawin' frae the land that's niver frae my mind?
My feet they trayvel England, but I'm deein' for the north –
My man, I heard the siller tides rin up the Firth o' Forth.
– from "The Wild Geese",Songs of Angus(1915)[7]
The Wild Geese,a conversation between the author and the North Wind, is a melancholic poem on the theme of homesickness. It was set to music asNorlan' Windand popularised by Angus singer and songmakerJim Reid,[8]who also set to music other poems by Jacob and those other Angus poets such as Marion Angus and Helen Cruikshank.[9]Another version, sung byCilla Fisher and Artie Trezise,appeared on their 1979Topic RecordsalbumCilla and Artie.Traditional folk bandMalinkyare among many other artists who have released versions ofNorland Wind.[10]
Prose
[edit]Apart from her collections of poetry and short stories, Violet Jacob published an Erskine family history (Lairds of Dun,1931) and five novels, the best known of which is the tragicFlemington(1911; reissued in 1994),[11]set in the aftermath of theJacobite rising of 1745.Flemingtonwas described byJohn Buchanas "the best Scots romance sinceThe Master of Ballantrae".[1][11]
Works
[edit]- The Sheep-stealers(1902), novel
- The Infant Moralist(1903), poems
- The Interloper(1904), novel
- The Golden Heart & other fairy stories(1904), stories
- Verses(1905)
- Irresolute Catherine(1908), novella
- The History of Aythan Waring(1908), novel
- Stories Told by the Miller(1909)
- The Fortune-hunters and Other Stories(1910)
- Flemington(1911), novel
- Songs of Angus(1915), poems
- More songs of Angus and others(1918), poems
- Bonnie Joann and other poems(1921)
- Tales of my own country(1922), short stories
- Two new poems(1924), poems
- The Northern Lights and other poems(1927), poems
- The good child's year book(1928)
- The Lairds of Dun(1931), family history
- The Scottish poems of Violet Jacob(1944), poems
- The Lum hat and other stories: Last tales of Violet Jacob(1982), short stories
- Diaries and letters from India 1895–1900(1990)
Reviews
[edit]Isobel Murray(1983), "The Forgotten Violet Jacob", reviewingThe Lum Hat and Other Stories",in Sheila G. Hearn, ed.,CencrastusNo. 13, Summer 1983, p. 54
References
[edit]- ^abcAnderson, Carol (25 May 2006). "Jacob [née Kennedy-Erskine], Violet Augusta Mary Frederica".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/58422.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^"Jacob [née Kennedy-Erskine], Violet Augusta Mary Frederica (1863–1946), writer".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/58422.Retrieved25 January2021.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^MacDiarmid, Hugh (1925).Contemporary Scottish Studies.
- ^Garden, Ronald (1982).The Lum Hat.Aberdeen University Press.ISBN0-08-028449-3.
- ^Scottish renaissance (2000). InThe Cambridge Guide to Literature in English.Retrieved from17 December 2011.
- ^"Death of Violet Jacob: A Notable Scottish Poet 'Songs of Angus'".The Scotsman.11 September 1946. p. 4.
- ^"Scottish Poetry Selection – The Wild Geese" at rampantscotland.com
- ^"Jim Reid: The Norland Wind/ The Wild Geese" at springthyme.co.uk
- ^"Norlan' Wind (The Wild Geese)" at educationscotland.gov.uk
- ^"Malinky, Norlan'Wind/Wild Geese".
- ^abJacob, Violet, 1863–1946 (1998).Flemington; & Tales from Angus.Anderson, Carol, Jacob, Violet, 1863–1946. Edinburgh: Canongate.ISBN0862417848.OCLC60650770.
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:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
Further reading
[edit]- Janet Caird(1984),The Poetry of Violet Jacob andHelen B. Cruickshank,in Geoff Parker, ed.CencrastusNo. 19, Winter 1984, pp. 32–34ISSN0264-0856
- Arianna Introna (2017), "Violet Jacob on the Capital Relation: Local and Global Flows of Privilege and (Im)mobility", Carla Sassi and Silke Stroh, eds., 2017,Empires and Revolution:Cunninghame Grahamand his Contemporaries,Scottish Literature International,Glasgow, pp. 157–170ISBN978-1-908980-25-0
External links
[edit]- Works by Violet JacobatProject Gutenberg
- Works by Violet JacobatFaded Page(Canada)
- Works by or about Violet JacobatInternet Archive
- Works by Violet JacobatLibriVox(public domain audiobooks)
- 1863 births
- 1946 deaths
- 20th-century Scottish writers
- Doric poets
- History of Angus, Scotland
- People from Angus, Scotland
- Schuyler family
- Scots-language poets
- Scottish novelists
- Scottish people of Dutch descent
- Scottish people of Welsh descent
- Scottish Renaissance
- Scottish women novelists
- Scottish women poets
- Van Cortlandt family