The Laird of Cockpen

by Sorche Nic Leodhas, Adrienne Adams (Illustrator)

Illustrated version of an old Scottish song in which a proud lord decides to honor one of the neighborhood ladies with a proposal and is surprised to be rejected. Includes musical notation.

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

pseudonym for Leclaire Alger

Sorche Nic Leodhas (1898–1969) was born LeClaire Louise Gowans in Youngstown, Ohio. After the death of her first husband, she moved to New York and attended classes at Columbia University. Several years later, she met her second husband and became LeClaire Gowans Alger. She was a longtime librarian at the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she also wrote children’s books. Shortly before she retired in 1966, she began publishing Scottish folktales and other stories under the pseudonym Sorche Nic Leodhas, Gaelic for Claire, daughter of Louis. In 1963, she received a Newbery Honor for Thistle and Thyme: Tales and Legends from Scotland. Alger continued to write and publish books until her death 1969.

Reviews

[Sem · Rating 3 out of 5]

I sang my way through this (but in the unanglicised version). It's a shame that she added the much later final verses which undermine the scornful tone of the original.

Next day: I shouldn't have read this. Now I can't get the song out of my head. I came close to drowning it out with another earworm - Peter and Gordon's 'World Without Love' - but it's back.

[SmokingMirror · Rating 4 out of 5]

A twist ending. Recommended.