Alexander Reid (playwright)


Alexander Reid was a Scottish playwright and poet, "one of the neglected dramatists of the Scottish Renaissance". His two best-known plays are The Lass wi' the Muckle Mou, based on the legend of Thomas the Rhymer, and The Warld's Wander, about Michael Scot, the famous magician.

Life

Alexander Reid was born on 19 August 1914 in Edinburgh, and educated at George Heriot's School. From 1929 to 1936 he worked as a journalist for the Edinburgh Evening News, before writing on Scottish history and literature for the SMT Magazine. A conscientious objector during World War II, he worked as a bookseller and accountant before becoming a full-time writer and broadcaster in 1948. The Lass wi' the Muckle Mouwas first performed at the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre in November 1950. He died in Edinburgh on 1 July 1982.

Works