Charles Murray is the leading figure in the development of the North-East dialect of Scots as a literary medium; and by extension, a major influence in the recovery of confidence in Scots as a poetic language which set the scene for the Scottish Renaissance of the 1920s.

The North-East of Scotland, in the mid-nineteenth century, was a self-contained and self-sufficient agricultural community with a strongly-marked dialect locally known as the “Doric” (which has survived remarkably well to the present day), a splendid tradition of folk-song and folk poetry, and a distinctive social culture based on large-scale arable farms employing workers who regularly “flitted” – moved from one place of work to another – every few terms. Murray's father, a joiner by trade, had a high local

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Citation: McClure, J. Derrick. "Charles Murray". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 November 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5201, accessed 25 November 2024.]