Alan Norman Bold (1943–1998) was a
Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
poet, biographer, journalist and saxophonist. He was born in
Edinburgh.
He edited
Hugh MacDiarmid
Christopher Murray Grieve (11 August 1892 – 9 September 1978), best known by his pen name Hugh MacDiarmid (), was a Scottish poet, journalist, essayist and political figure. He is considered one of the principal forces behind the Scottish Rena ...
's ''Letters'' and wrote the influential biography ''MacDiarmid''. Bold had acquainted himself with MacDiarmid in 1963 while still an English Literature student at
Edinburgh University. His debut work, ''Society Inebrious'', with a lengthy introduction by MacDiarmid, was published in 1965, during Bold's final university year. This early publication kick-started a prolific poetic career with Bold publishing another three books of verse before the end of the decade, including the ambitious book-length poem ''The State of the Nation''. He also edited ''The Penguin Book of Socialist Verse'' (1970) and published a 1973 biography of
Robert Burns.
Alan Bold married an art teacher, Alice. Their daughter Valentina is
Robert Burns scholar like her father, who teaches at the
University of Glasgow.
A lifelong heavy drinker who dealt with the boozy life of the poet in such collections as ''A Pint of Bitter'', Bold died after a short illness in a hospital in
Kirkcaldy
Kirkcaldy ( ; sco, Kirkcaldy; gd, Cair Chaladain) is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south-southwest of Dundee. The town had a recorded population of 49,460 in 2011, ...
at the age of 54.
Publications
Poetry
* ''Penguin Modern Poets 15'', 1969.
* ''Society Inebrious'', Mowat Hamilton, Edinburgh 1965
* ''The Voyage'', 1966
* ''To Find the New'', Chatto and Windus, London, 1967
* ''A Perpetual Motion Machine'', Chatto and Windus, London, 1969
* ''The State of the Nation'', Chatto and Windus, London, 1969
* ''A Pint of Bitter'', Chatto and Windus, 1971
* ''The Malfeasance'', Alan Bold 1974
* ''This Fine Day'', Borderline Press, 1979
Other
*''The Penguin Book of Socialist Verse'' Penguin, 1970
* ''Biography of
Robert Burns'', Pitkin Pictorials Ltd, 1973
* ''Letters of
Hugh MacDiarmid
Christopher Murray Grieve (11 August 1892 – 9 September 1978), best known by his pen name Hugh MacDiarmid (), was a Scottish poet, journalist, essayist and political figure. He is considered one of the principal forces behind the Scottish Rena ...
'' (edited), 1983
* ''East is West'' a novel, Keith Murray Publishing, 1991
* ''Making Love: The Picador Book of Erotic Verse'', 1978
* ''The Bawdy Beautiful: The Sphere Book of Improper Verse'', Editor, 1979
* ''Mounts of Venus: The Picador Book if Erotic Prose'', 1980
* ''The Sensual Scot'', Paul Harris Publishing, Editor, 1982
Reviews
* Murray, Glen (1980), review of ''This Fine Day'', in ''
Cencrastus'' No. 2, Spring 1980, pp. 43 – 45,
* Czerkawska, Catherine Lucy (1980), review of ''The Bawdy Beautiful: The Sphere Book of Improper Verse'', ''
Cencrastus'' No. 2, Spring 1980, p. 45
* Anderson, Carol (1983), ''The Bold Type'', review of ''The Sensual Scot'', in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), ''
Cencrastus'' No. 13, Summer 1983, p. 56
External links
Alan Bold at The Scottish Poetry Librarybiography and appreciation by Richie McCaffery.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bold, Alan
1943 births
1998 deaths
Scottish Renaissance
20th-century Scottish poets
Scottish male poets
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
20th-century British male writers