RAD173

Letter from C M Grieve to James Leatham

There are 2 pages in this publication.

RAD173_01, RAD173_02

manuscript

letter

This letter to Leatham is from Christopher Murray Grieve, better known as the writer Hugh McDermaid, who at this time was a Scottish Nationalist. The letter reads:

Postponed sending p.o. [postal order] with intention of visiting you - but alas! Too often when I do that things get "snowed under". In any case - what could I have said? You and I are at opposite poles in most things: we are even "Socialists" for diametrically opposed reasons. But I read all your pamphlets with interest, and there are others I want once I get time to send you a note of the titles. My philosophy holds that there are two irreconciliably opposed types of mind - or principles - which are indispensable to each other - and that whoever would try to reconcile them or to abate their opposition to each other, is a traitor to life. Whatever opinions I hold and express therefore, I always account it good if these evoke autogenesis.
How do I think it impossible to hold two or more diametrically opposed opinions on matters simultaneously – or immoral to indulge all of these in succession – so, however strongly I may combat other peoples’ ideas for tactical purposes, I am really never sufficiently one-sided to oppose them – at least altogether – in reality, and certainly never bear any ill-will although I often make a point of writing as if I did.

With every good wish

Yours sincerely

C.M. Grieve

Christopher Murray Grieve, aka Hugh MacDiarmid

1920s

20th June 1928

Historic Collections

James Leatham Papers, MS2776

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/diss/historic/documents/copyright