| Administrative History | Marion Angus was born on 27 Mar 1865 in Sunderland, County Durham, England, but spent most of her childhood in Arbroath, where her father, the Rev. Dr Angus was a United Presbyterian Church minister. After his death, she moved to Aberdeen with her mother and sister, and lived here until 1945. She returned to Arbroath in 1945 and died there on 18 August 1946.
Marion Angus did not begin to write seriously until over fifty, and her first collection of poetry, 'The Lilt and Other Verses' was published by Wylie and Sons, Aberdeen, in 1922. This was followed by 'The Tinker's Road and Other Verses' (Glasgow and London: Gowans and Gray, 1924); 'Sun and Candlelight' (Edinburgh: Porpoise Press, 1927); 'The Turn of Day' (Edinburgh: Porpoise Press, 1931); and 'Lost Country' (Glasgow: Gowans and Gray, 1937). All of her work was characterised by her use of Scots dialect. She developed friendships with many contemporary literary figures, including Naomi Mitchison (1897 - 1999), author; W.H. Auden (1902 - 1985), poet; Marion Lochead (1902 - 1985), poet; Helen B. Cruickshank (1886 - 1975), poet; and Nan Shepherd (1893 - 1981), author.
A short biography is contained in the introduction of 'Selected Poems of Marion Angus', ed. by Helen B. Cruickshank and Maurice Lindsay (Edinburgh: Serif Books, 1950). This small volume of her works was compiled as a tribute after her death in 1946. |