Gunn, Neil M
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1891-1973) Scottish author and civil servant, author of many novels, the first being Grey Coast (1926). It and some others – like Morning Tide (1931), The Lost Glen (1932), Second Sight (1940) and The Silver Bough (1948) – contain fantasy elements of interest, reminiscent at times of the Celtic Twilight writings of Fiona MacLeod (William Sharp, 1855-1905) [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]. The Green Isle of the Great Deep (1944), a sequel to Young Art and Old Hector (1942), describes the experiences of an old man and a young boy in an Underground realm which turns out to be a sterile and totalitarian land of the dead (see Dystopias): their protests to God are successful. The Well at the World's End (1951), whose title acknowledges a debt to William Morris, sums up Gunn's style, which is rich and sometimes sentimental, and his abiding concern, which is the evocation of an idealized Scotland. [JC]
Neil Miller Gunn
born Dunbeath, Caithness, Scotland: 8 November 1891
died Inverness, Scotland: 15 January 1973
works
- Grey Coast (London: Jonathan Cape, 1926) [hb/]
- Morning Tide (Edinburgh, Scotland: Porpoise Press, 1931) [hb/]
- The Lost Glen (Edinburgh, Scotland: Porpoise Press, 1932) [hb/]
- Second Sight (London: Faber and Faber, 1940) [hb/]
- Young Art and Old Hector (London: Faber and Faber, 1942) [hb/]
- The Green Isle of the Great Deep (London: Faber and Faber, 1944) [hb/]
- The Silver Bough (London: Faber and Faber, 1948) [hb/]
- The Well at the World's End (London: Faber and Faber, 1951) [hb/]
links
previous versions of this entry