Rachel Annand Taylor was a Scottish

Scottish people

The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...

 poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

, biographer and literary critic.

Born in Aberdeen

Aberdeen

Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....

 to stonemason John Annand and his wife Clarinda Dinnie, she was one of the first women to study at Aberdeen University. She later taught at Aberdeen High School for Girls.

As a writer she was admired by Richard Aldington

Richard Aldington

Richard Aldington , born Edward Godfree Aldington, was an English writer and poet.Aldington was best known for his World War I poetry, the 1929 novel, Death of a Hero, and the controversy arising from his 1955 Lawrence of Arabia: A Biographical Inquiry...

, G.K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc

Hilaire Belloc

Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was an Anglo-French writer and historian who became a naturalised British subject in 1902. He was one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. He was known as a writer, orator, poet, satirist, man of letters and political activist...

 and D. H. Lawrence

D. H. Lawrence

David Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation...

. In 1943 she was awarded an honorary LLD

Legum Doctor

Legum Doctor is a doctorate-level academic degree in law, or an honorary doctorate, depending on the jurisdiction. The double L in the abbreviation refers to the early practice in the University of Cambridge to teach both Canon Law and Civil Law, the double L indicating the plural, Doctor of both...

 from Aberdeen University.

She married Alexander C. Taylor in 1901 and lived in Dundee and London, where she died in 1960. Aberdeen has honoured her with a commemorative plaque at Harlaw Academy

Harlaw Academy

Harlaw Academy is a six year comprehensive secondary school situated some 200 yards from the junction of Union Street and Holburn Street in the centre of the city of Aberdeen, Scotland. It is directly adjacent to Aberdeen Grammar School...

.

Three of her poems are included in Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse, 1917.

Works

• Poems (1904)
• Rose and Vine (1909)
• The Hours of Fiammetta; a sonnet sequence (1910)
• The End of Fiammetta (1923)
• Aspects of the Italian Renaissance (1923, reprinted 1968)
• Leonardo the Florentine: A Study in Personality (1927, reprinted in 2003, ISBN 0-7661-4411-9)
• Invitation to Renaissance Italy (1930)
• Dunbar
  William Dunbar
  William Dunbar was a Scottish poet. He was probably a native of East Lothian, as assumed from a satirical reference in the Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie , where, too, it is hinted that he was a member of the noble house of Dunbar....
  
  , the Poet and his Period (1931, reprinted 1969)
• Renaissance France (unpublished manuscript, National Library of Scotland)

External links

• The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse