Gibbon, Lewis Grassic, pseudonym of James Leslie Mitchell 1901-35
Scottish novelist

Born near Auchterless, Aberdeenshire, he was educated at the local school before attending Mackie Academy, Stonehaven, which he left after a year to become a newspaper reporter. Stirred by the promise of the Russian Revolution he became a member of the Communist Party. In 1919 he moved to Glasgow where he was employed on the Scottish Farmer, but he was dismissed for fiddling expenses. He attempted suicide, returned home and decided to enlist. He spent three and a half years with the Royal Army Service Corps in Persia, India and Egypt, and then served in the RAF as a clerk until 1929. His first published book was Hanno, or the Future of Exploration (1928), followed by Stained Radiance (1930), The Thirteenth Disciple (1931), Three Go Back (1932) and The Lost Trumpet (1932). Sunset Song, his greatest achievement, was published in 1932, the first of his books to appear under his pseudonym. Written in less than two months it was published under his mother's name as the first in a projected trilogy of novels, A Scots Quair, on the life of a young girl called Chris Guthrie. The second volume, Cloud Howe, appeared in 1933 and the third part, Grey Granite, in 1934. An unfinished novel, The Speak of the Mearns, was published in 1982. He also wrote a biography of the Scottish explorer, Mungo Park (1934), and published The Conquest of the Maya (1934). He died following an operation on a perforated ulcer.

Bibliography: D Young, Beyond the Sunset (1973)