Neil M. Gunn

For the Canadian sailor, seeNeil Gunn (sailor).

Neil M. Gunn
Born	Neil Miller Gunn (1891-11-08)8 November 1891 Dunbeath,Caithness, Scotland
Died	15 January 1973(1973-01-15)(aged 81)
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	Scottish
Genre	general fiction
Subject	Scottish Highlands
Literary movement	20th centuryScottish Renaissance
Notable works	The Silver Darlings(1941)
Notable awards	James Tait Black Memorial Prizefor fiction
Spouse	Jessie Dallas Frew (m. 1921–
Website
neilgunn.org.uk

Neil Miller Gunn(8 November 1891 – 15 January 1973) was a prolific Scottish novelist, critic, and dramatist who emerged as one of the leading lights of theScottish Renaissanceof the 1920s and 1930s. With over twenty novels to his credit, Gunn was arguably the most influentialScottishfiction writer of the first half of the 20th century (with the possible exception ofLewis Grassic Gibbon,the pen name ofJames Leslie Mitchell).

Like his contemporary,Hugh MacDiarmid,Gunn was politically committed to the ideals of both Scottish nationalism and socialism (a difficult balance to maintain for a writer of his time). His fiction deals primarily with theHighlandcommunities and landscapes of his youth,though the author chose (contraMacDiarmid and his followers) to write almost exclusively in English rather thanScotsorGaelicbut was heavily influenced in his writing style by the language.

Early life

Neil Miller Gunn was born in the village ofDunbeath,Caithness. His father was the captain of aherringboat, and Gunn's fascination with the sea and the courage of fishermen can be traced directly back to his childhood memories of his father's work. His mother would also provide Gunn with a crucial model for the types of steadfast, earthy, and tradition-bearing women that would populate many of his works.

Gunn had eight siblings, and when his primary schooling was completed in 1904, he moved south to live with his older sister Mary and her husband Dr. Keiller, the local GP at Kenbank inSt John's Town of Dalry,Kirkcudbrightshire.He continued his education there with tutors including the local schoolmaster, and the writer and poet J.G.Carter "Theodore Mayne". He sat theCivil Serviceexam in 1907. This led to a move to London, where the adolescent Gunn was exposed to both the exciting world of new political and philosophical ideas as well as to the seamier side of modern urban life. In 1910 Gunn became aCustoms and ExciseOfficer and was posted back to the Highlands. He would remain a customs officer throughout the First World War and until he was well established as a writer in 1937.

Marriage

Gunn married Jessie Dallas Frew in 1921 and they settled inInverness,near his permanent excise post at the Glen Mhordistillery.

Beginnings as a writer

During the 1920s Gunn began to publish short stories, as well as poems and short essays, in various literary magazines. He also wrote a number of plays. HisThe Ancient Firewas staged at the Lyric Theatre inGlasgowin 1929.His writing brought him into contact with other writers associated with the buddingScottish Renaissance,such as Hugh MacDiarmid,James Bridie,Naomi Mitchison,Eric Linklater,Edwin Muir,Lewis Grassic Gibbon, andGeorge Blake.

Blake andGeorge Malcolm Thomsonwere running thePorpoise Press,whose mission was to reestablish a national publishing industry for Scotland, by now an imprint ofFaber & Faber,and they became Gunn's publisher in the early 1930s. The first novels Gunn published wereThe Grey Coastin 1926 andThe Lost Glenin 1928. During this period, Gunn was active in theNational Party of Scotland,which formed part of what became theScottish National Party.

The professional writer

Part of the Neil Gunn memorial aboveStrathpeffer,erected by the Neil M. Gunn Memorial Trust.

Following the publishing success ofHighland River(for which he was awarded the 1937James Tait Black Memorial Prizefor fiction), Gunn was able to resign from the Customs and Excise in 1937 and become a full-time writer. He rented a farmhouse nearStrathpefferand embarked on his most productive period as a novelist and essayist.Butcher's BroomandThe Silver Darlingsare historical novels dealing with theHighland Clearances.Young Art and Old HectorandThe Green Isle of the Great Deepare both fantasies based on Scottish folklore.Gunn's later works in the 1940s and into the 1950s became concerned with issues oftotalitarianism.

The Highland Zen master

Gunn's final full-length work was a discursive autobiography entitledThe Atom of Delight.This text showed the influence which a reading ofEugen Herrigel'sZen in the Art of Archeryhad upon Gunn. His utilisation of these ideas was not so much mystical as providing a view of the individual in a"small self-contained community, with a long-established way of life, with actions and responses known and defined".He took the playing offiddlereelsas an example:"how a human hand could perform, on its own, truly astonishing feats – astonishing in the sense that if thought interfered for a moment the feat was destroyed".This thought-free state could be a source of delight.Zen in the art of Neil Gunn

In his later years, Gunn was involved in broadcasting and also published in diverse journals such asAnarchy Magazinein London,The Glasgow Herald,Holiday(USA),Saltire Review,Scotland's Magazine,Scots Review,andPointmagazine inLeicester.

In his later years Gunn lived on theBlack Isle.He died in Raigmore Hospital in Inverness on 15 January 1973, aged 81.

Legacy

Gunn is commemorated inMakars' Court,outside theWriters' Museum,Lawnmarket,Edinburgh. Selections for Makars' Court are made by the Writers' Museum; theSaltire Society;theScottish Poetry Library.The Neil Gunn Trust was established in 1986, and in October 1987 a monument to the writer was unveiled on the Heights of Brae, Strathpeffer.

The Neil Gunn Writing Competition was established in 1988 by Ross & Cromarty District Council (later becoming the Highland Council) and the Trust. The competition is now organised by High Life Highland and the Trust.

Kenn and the Salmon,from the characters inHighland River,a statue erected in memory of Neil Gunn at Dunbeath

Bibliography

Novels

• The Grey Coast(1926)
• The Lost Glen(1928)
• Morning Tide(1931)
• The Poaching at Grianan(1930 as serial inScots Magazine) (2005)
• Sun Circle(1933)
• Butcher's Broom(1934) (1935 American printing under titleHighland Night)
• Highland River(1937)
• Wild Geese Overhead(1939)
• Second Sight(1940)
• The Silver Darlings(1941) (filmed in 1947)
• Young Art and Old Hector(1942)
• The Serpent(1943)
• The Green Isle of the Great Deep(1944)
• The Key of the Chest(1945)
• The Drinking Well(1946)
• The Silver Bough(1948)
• The Shadow(1948)
• The Lost Chart(1949)
• The Well at the World's End(1951)
• Blood Hunt(1952) (adapted fortelevisionin 1986)
• The Other Landscape(1954)

Short stories

• Hidden Doors(1929)
• The White Hour(1950)
• The Tax-Gatherer

Essays and autobiography

• Whisky and Scotland(1935)
• Off in a Boat(1938)
• Highland Pack(1949)
• The Atom of Delight(1956)

Plays

• The Ancient Fire(1929)

Literary criticism

• Burns, John,Neil M. Gunn: Celebration of the Light,in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.),CencrastusNo. 11, New Year 1983, pp. 29 – 31,ISSN0264-0856
• Burns, John,Celebration of the Light: Zen in the Novels of Neil M. Gunn,Edinburgh: Canongate, 1988
• Gifford, Douglas,Neil M. Gunn and Lewis Grassic Gibbon.Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1983,ISBN9780050031988
• Laplace, Philippe,Les Hautes-Terres, l'histoire et la mémoire dans les romans de Neil M. Gunn.Besançon: PUFC, 2006
• McCulloch, Margery,The Novels of Neil M. Gunn: A Critical Study.Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1987
• Price, Richard,The Fabulous Matter of Fact: The Poetics of Neil M. Gunn.Edinburgh University Press, 1991
• Price, Richard, "Argument and Innovation in the Work of Neil M. Gunn", in Dunn, Angus (ed.),NorthwordsIssue 1, Autumn 1991, pp. 46 - 48,ISSN0964-6876
• Scott, Alexander and Gifford, Douglas,Neil M. Gunn: The Man and the Writer.Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1973

Further reading

• Gunn, Neil M.Selected Letters,ed. J.B. Pick (1986), Polygon Books
• Hart, Francis; Pick, J.B. (1985).Neil M. Gunn: a Highland Life.Edinburgh: Polygon.ISBN0-904919-95-1.(originally published John Murray, London, (1981))
• McCulloch, Margery,The Novels of Neil M. Gunn,in Lindsay, Maurice (ed.),The Scottish Review: Arts and Environment,August 1980, pp. 46 – 50,ISSN0140-0894
• Pick, J.B. (2004)Neil Gunn.Northcote House, for British Council.ISBN0-7463-0989-9
• Smith, Donald (1983),Naomi Mitchisonand Neil Gunn: A Highland Friendship,in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.),CencrastusNo 13, Summer 1983, pp. 17 – 20,ISSN0264-0856
• Stokoe, C.J.L. (1987),A Bibliography of the Works of Neil M. Gunn,Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press

External links

• Dunbeath Heritage Centre
• Neil M. GunnatLibrary of Congress,with 59 library catalogue records
• Neil M. Gunnat theInternet Speculative Fiction Database
• Whose History, Which Novel: Neil M. Gunn and the Gaelic Ideaat HydroHotel.net
• wildcatfilmsArchived27 January 2018 at theWayback Machine– independent film company site with a link to their screenplay adaptation of "The Other Landscape"
• Neil M. GunnatIMDb