Violet Jacob (1863-1946). Portrait by Henry Harris Brown (1864–1948). Courtesy ArtUK.
Violet Jacob (1 September 1863 - 9 September 1946) was a Scottish poet and novelist, known especially for her historical novel Flemington and her poetry, mainly in the Scots language.
Life[]
Jacob was born Violet Augusta Mary Frederica Kennedy-Erskine, the daughter of William Henry Kennedy-Erskine (1 July 1828 - 15 September 1870) of Dun, Forfarshire, a Captain in the 17th Lancers and Catherine (Jones) (died 13 February 1914), the only daughter of William Jones of Henllys, Carmarthenshire. Her father was the son of John Kennedy-Erskine (1802-1831) of Dun and Augusta (FitzClarence) (1803-1865), the illegitimate daughter of King William IV and Dorothea Jordan. She was a great-granddaughter of Archibald Kennedy, 1st Marquess of Ailsa.[1] The area of Montrose, Angus, where her family seat of Dun was situated was the setting for much of her fiction.
She married, on 27 October 1894, Arthur Otway Jacob, an Irish major in the British Army, and accompanied him to India where he was serving. Her book Diaries and Letters from India, 1895-1900 is about their stay in the Central Indian town of Mhow. The couple had a son, Harry, born in 1895, who died during World War I as a soldier at the battle of the Somme in 1916. Arthur died in 1936, and Violet returned to live at Kirriemuir, in Angus.
Writing[]
In her poetry Jacob was associated with Scots revivalists like Marion Angus, Alexander Gray and Lewis Spence in the Scottish Renaissance, which drew its inspiration from early Scots poets such as Robert Henryson and William Dunbar, rather than from Robert Burns.[2]
Oh, tell me what was on yer road, ye roarin' norlan wind
As ye cam' blawin' frae the land that's niver frae my mind?
My feet they trayvel England, but I'm deein' for the north —
My man, I heard the siller tides rin up the Firth o' Forth.
The Wild Geese, which takes the form of a conversation between the poet and the North Wind, is a sad poem of longing for home. It was set to music as Norlan' Wind and popularised by Angus folk singer and songmaker Jim Reid.[4] Reid set to music other poems by Jacob and other Angus poets such as Marion Angus and Helen Cruikshank.[5] Another popular version, sung by Cilla Fisher and Artie Trezise, appeared on their 1979 Topic Records album Cilla and Artie.
Recognition[]
She is commemorated in Makars' Court, outside the Writers' Museum, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh. Selections for Makars' Court are made by the Writers' Museum, the Saltire Society. and the Scottish Poetry Library.
Publications[]
Poetry[]
- Verses. London: Heinemann, 1905.
- Songs of Angus. London: John Murray, 1915, 1928.
- More songs of Angus, and others. London: "Country Life", 1918.
- Bonnie Joann, and other poems. London: John Murray, 1921.
- Two New Poems. Edinburgh: Porpoise Press, 1924.
- The Northern Lights and other poems. London: John Murray, 1927.
- The Scottish Poems. Edinburgh & London: Oliver & Boyd, 1944.
- Voices from Their Ain Countrie: The poems of Marion Angus and Violet Jacob (edited by Katherine Gordon). Glasgow: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2006.
Novels[]
- The Sheepstealers. London: Heinemann, 1902; New York: Putnam, 1902.
- The Interloper. London: Heinemann, 1904; New York: Doubleday, Page, 1904.
- Irresolute Catherine. London: John Murray, 1908.
- The History of Aythan Waring. London: Heinemann, 1908.
- Flemington. London: John Murray, 1911; Aberdeen, UK: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 1994.
Short fiction[]
- Stories Told by the Miller. London: John Murray, 1909.
- The Fortune Hunters and Other Stories. London: John Murray, 1910.
- Tales of My Own Country. London: John Murray, 1922.
- The Lum Hat, and other stories: Last tales. Aberdeen, UK: Aberdeen University Press, 1982.
Non-fiction[]
- The Lairds of Dun. London: John Murray, 1931.
Juvenile[]
- The Infant Moralist (with Helena Carnegie). Edinburgh: R. Grant, 1903; London: Foulis, 1926.
- The Golden Heart, and other fairy stories (illustrated by May Sandheim). London: Heinemann, 1904; New York: Doubleday, Page, 1905.
- The Good Child's Year Book. London: Foulis, 1927.
Collected editions[]
- Flemingdon / Tales from Angus. Edinburgh: Canongate, 1998.
Letters and journals[]
- Diaries and letters from India, 1895-1900. Edinburgh: Canongate, 1990.
Halloween ~ Sheena Wellington and Karine Polwart
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[6]
See also[]
References[]
Notes[]
- ↑ Burke's Peerage.
- ↑ Scottish Renaissance (2000). In The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Retrieved 17 December 2011.
- ↑ "Scottish Poetry Selection - The Wild Geese" at rampantscotland.com
- ↑ "Jim Reid: The Norland Wind/ The Wild Geese" at springthyme.co.uk
- ↑ "Norlan' Wind (The Wild Geese)" at educationscotland.gov.uk
- ↑ Search results = au:Violet Jacob, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Mar. 19, 2017.
External links[]
- Poems
- "Tam i' the Kirk" in A Book of Women's Verse
- Violet Jacob at the Scottish Poetry Library (7 poems)
- Books
- Works by Violet Jacob at Project Gutenberg
- Violet Jacob at Amazon.com
- About
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