James William Barke (22 May 1905 - 20 March 1958) was a Scottish novelist.

Biography

Born in Torwoodlee, near

Galashiels Galashiels (; sco, Gallae, gd, An Geal Àth) is a town in the Scottish Borders with a population of around 12,600. Its name is often colloquially shortened to "Gala". The town is a major commercial centre for the Borders region with extensive ...

Selkirkshire Selkirkshire or the County of Selkirk ( gd, Siorrachd Shalcraig) is a historic county and registration county of Scotland. It borders Peeblesshire to the west, Midlothian to the north, Roxburghshire to the east, and Dumfriesshire to the south. ...

, Barke was the fourth child of James Bark, a dairyman and Jane, a dairymaid. In 1907, the family moved to

Tulliallan Tulliallan (Gaelic ''tulach-aluinn'', 'Beautiful knoll') was an estate in Perthshire, Scotland, near to Kincardine, and a parish. The Blackadder lairds of Tulliallan, a branch of the Blackadder border clan, wielded considerable power in the 15 ...

in Fife, where he attended Tulliallan parish school. In 1918, they moved to

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, where he attended Hamilton Crescent public school. He trained as an

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

and worked as the manager of a shipbuilding firm. He was involved in local and nationalist politics. His obituary states that he: "Wrote and felt as a conscious

proletarian The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose only possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian. Marxist philoso ...

, in a period when proletarian self-consciousness was particularly strong". His first novel, ''The World his Pillow'' was published in 1933. He also married Nan Coats in this year. The couple went on to have two sons. After 1945, Barke resigned from his job, and the family moved to Ayrshire, where he worked on ''The Immortal Memory,'' his series of five novels based on the life of

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who hav ...

. The novels were popular with readers, but not with Burns scholars. The family returned to Glasgow in 1955. Barke died on 20 March 1958. His funeral was addressed by

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 ...

Fiction

His first three novels are set in the

Highlands of Scotland The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...

, treating the subject of the sadness and bitterness of the empty glens and straths following the Highland Clearances. The fourth, ''Major Operation,'' is a novel about

's Clydeside during the Great Depression. ''The Land of the Leal'' moves to the Scottish Lowlands. His ''Immortal Memory'' quintet was about the life of the poet,

Bibliography

* ''The World his Pillow'', 1933 * ''The Wild MacRaes'', 1934 * ''The End of the High Bridge'', 1935 * ''Major Operation'', 1936 * ''The Land of the Leal'', 1939 * ''The Immortal Memory quintet'' ** ''The Wind that Shakes the Barley'', 1946 ** ''The Song in the Green Thorn Tree'', 1947 ** ''The Wonder of all the Gay World'', 1949 ** ''The Crest of the Broken Wave'', 1953 ** ''Bonnie Jean'', 1959 *

The Merry Muses of Caledonia The Merry Muses of Caledonia is a collection of bawdy songs said to have been collected or written by Robert Burns, the 18th-century Scottish poet. Original text The poems and songs were collected for the private use of Robert Burns and his fr ...

'': A Collection of Bawdy Folksongs, Ancient and Modern'' (with

Sydney Goodsir Smith Sydney Goodsir Smith (26 October 1915 – 15 January 1975) was a New Zealand-born Scottish poet, artist, dramatist and novelist. He wrote poetry in literary Scots often referred to as Lallans (Lowlands dialect), and was a major figure of the S ...

John DeLancey Ferguson John DeLancey Ferguson (November 13, 1888 – August 13, 1966) was a writer and academic. Early life Ferguson was born at Scottsville, New York in 1888. Academic career Ferguson attended Rutgers University, where he achieved a Bachelor of Arts d ...

)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barke, James 1905 births 1958 deaths 20th-century British novelists Scottish novelists Scottish socialists

Biography

Fiction

Bibliography

References

Further reading

External links