From the Alleghenies to the Hebrides [Paperback]

Margaret Fay Shaw (Author), Shaw Margaret Fay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 2000

Margaret Fay Shaw's life spans a century of change. In her early teens she was dispatched from the idyllic surroundings of the Alleghenies to stay with a distant cousin near Glasgow. It was here that her love of Scotland was born. After studying music at New York and Paris, she returned to live for six years with two sisters in a cottage on South Uist. Life on South Uist at this time had barely changed from earlier centuries, and the island contained a repository of Gaelic lore and song. Margaret Fay Shaw's collections of this archive and her photography capture a world vanished from the Hebrides. Her autobiography is also a plea in defence of a Gaelic culture and world that is disappearing.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'This autobiography is a miniature masterpiece. It is direct, straightforward, often funny, sometimes moving, never sentimental, always serving to evoke what was so valuable about ways of living, which in the last half century, have been set irretrievably aside.' - Times Literary Supplement --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Margaret Fay Shaw died on Canna in 2004 at the age of 101. She was one of the most notable collectors of authentic Scottish Gaelic song and traditions in the 20th century. Shaw was also an outstanding photographer, and both her still pictures and cinematography contributed to an invaluable archive of island life in the 1930s. She met the folklorist John Lorne Campbell on South Uist in 1934; they married a year later and together helped to rescue vast quantities of oral tradition from oblivion. Her autobiography has been almost continuously in print since its first publication in 1994. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 150 pages
• Publisher: Birlinn Publishers (January 31, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841580066
• ISBN-13: 978-1841580067
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,259,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Canna: Going Back In Time, January 8, 2006

By 

Brian Groves "Brian" (Charlotte, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: From the Alleghenies to the Hebrides: An Autobiography (Paperback)

This is a wonderful book, from a wonderful woman. As my great aunt, our family enjoyed visiting her. Her book is a testament to her life, a I am amazed that she was able to live for so long. Even a few years before she died, she was blind, but was still able to play the piano beautifully. This book will amaze and surprise you. Enjoy reading it!