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 Poetremains a problematic work. Its tone and style vary continuously, resisting confinement to…
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Citation: Matthews, Kirsten. "Lucky Poet". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 April 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10059, accessed 31 October 2024.]
