Alias MacAlias: Writings on Songs, Folk and Literature

by Hamish Henderson, Alec Finlay (Editor)

He was well-known as a songwriter and poet (his collection Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica won the Somerset Maugham Prize in 1949) and as a pioneer in the field of Scottish folk studies and song collecting. Henderson was also a highly original translator of poetry - from Gaelic, French, German, Latin and Greek - much of it into Scots, and also of the work of the Italian socialist Antonio Gramsci, whose Prison Letters he published in English in 1974.

This book brings together around sixty pieces spanning fifty years - essays, articles, reviews and reminiscences - which demonstrate the enormous diversity of his interests. There are essays on literature (Hugh MacDiarmid and Lorca), politics (post-war Germany, the Clearances), and, of course, on the folk song tradition. Alias MacAlias was first published by Polygon in 1992. Birlinn will publish a major biography of Hamish Henderson by Timothy Neat in 2005.

Genres: History

331 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Hamish Scott Henderson, (Scottish Gaelic: Seamas MacEanraig (Seamas Mòr)) was a Scottish poet, songwriter, communist, soldier and intellectual. He was an accomplished folk song collector and a catalyst for the folk revival in Scotland.

Reviews

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I asked for this book on my 21st birthday, the year after its publication. I don’t why it’s taken me so long to read it because I always knew it would be a special book. It has followed me from home to home before finally reading it earlier this year. The work of Hamish Henderson and his pioneering role to bring Scottish folk studies into sharp focus at a time when many oral traditions could quite literally have died out, is nothing short of remarkable. He even began a dialogue with Alan Lomax who came to Scotland, travelling with Hamish around the country recording the unique voices and undocumented songs as part of his epic folk collection. This collection of essays is a journey in itself, uncovering regional differences in lyrics and song tradition, detailing the folk revival and the personalities involved, as well as more formal essays on the literature of Scotland at a time when Scottish Literature wasn’t a recognised cultural entity in its own right.

Although Henderson was a huge lover of Scotland his outlook was international in its purest sense. He was anti-fascist and a political fighter. He penned Freedom Come-All-Ye in 1960, an anti-imperialist song denouncing the role of the soldier, the coloniser, but one that looks toward a more socially just world.

Nae mair will the bonnie callants
Mairch tae war when oor braggarts crousely craw,
Nor wee weans frae pit-heid and clachan
Mourn the ships sailin’ doon the Broomielaw.
Broken faimlies in lands we’ve herriet,
Will curse Scotland the Brave nae mair, nae mair;
Black and white, ane til ither mairriet,
Mak the vile barracks o’ their maisters bare.

Hamish Henderson was a giant of Scottish culture and deserves to be more widely celebrated than he currently is.