Mitchell published a number of short stories and articles and his first book, Hanno, or the Future of Exploration appeared in 1928. Seven novels followed under his own name: Stained Radiance (1930); The Thirteenth Disciple (1931); Three Go Back (1932); The Lost Trumpet (1932); Image and Superscription (1933); Spartacus (1933); and Gay Hunter (1934). In the same year Mitchell collaborated with Hugh MacDiarmid to make Scottish Scene, which contained three of Mitchell’s best short stories, since collected in A Scots Hairst (1969).

He adopted his mother’s name for his finest work, the trilogy A Scots Quair, which comprised Sunset Song, Cloud Howe and Grey Granite, written between 1932 and 1934. Dogged by ill health at the end, Mitchell died of a perforated ulcer at the age of only thirty-four. An unfinished novel, The Speak of the Mearns, was published in 1982.

Copyright

First published in 1934 by Jarrolds

First published as a Canongate Classic in 1990
by Canongate Books Ltd,
14 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1TE

This digital edition first published in 2009
by Canongate Books

Introduction copyright © Thomas Crawford, 1990

The publishers gratefully acknowledge general subsidy from the Scottish Arts Council towards the Canongate Classics series and a specific grant towards the publication of this title

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 84767 806 5

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