Hugh MacDiarmid
Hugh MacDiarmid was the pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve (1892–1978), a major poet of 20th century Scottish modernism. After finishing school, Grieve worked as a journalist and served a stint in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War I. Deeply involved in politics, he was expelled from the National Party of Scotland, which he helped found, for being a communist, and ousted from the Communist Party of Great Britain for being a nationalist. MacDiarmid’s poetry, including his book length A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle, is notable for its stylistic innovations and role in the Scottish Renaissance of the 20th century.