Born in Tayport, Fife, on 5 June 1913, Douglas Young was one of the most charismatic and distinguished Scots of his day. Described by Nigel Tranter as a 'Poet, scholar, author, linguist, raconteur and fighter of causes', he was a genuine polymath, an intellectual giant, and his range of interests was exceptional. A brilliant Classical scholar, who studied and later taught Latin and Greek, he had a great facility for languages. Above all he was fluent in 'Lallans' or Lowland Scots, in the tradition of Burns, Scott and Stevenson. Young was one of the leading 'Scottish Renaissance' poets or 'neoLallans Makars', and his two notable volumes of his poetry were Auntran Blads: an outwale of verses (1943) and A Braird O Thristles (1947), included here. He died at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA, where he was Paddison Professor of Greek, on 24 October 1973.

Foreword by: Clara Young