Katherine Whyte Grant | Catrìona NicGhilleBhàin Ghrannd (11 April 1845, Oban – 18 August 1928, Oban) was an author and translator who worked in Gaelic and English. Her first major project was a Gaelic translation of Friedrich Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell (Uilleam Tell, 1893), made from the German original. She was widely travelled and visited Romania, Norway, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. As an author, she focused on Gaelic stories and plays for young readers based on traditional tales. She is the author of Dùsgadh na Fèinne (1908), a play for children with songs. Her contributions were often signed ‘K. W. G.’ Henry ‘Fionn’ Whyte and John Whyte, who also contributed to Erskine’s magazines, were her first cousins. She also used the penname ‘Latharna’ (Lorne).
Erskine praised Dùsgadh na Fèinne in a review in Guth na Bliadhna, ‘Two Blasts of the Horn’ (Winter 1908), and her translation of William Tell was discussed by Malcolm MacFarlane | Calum MacPhàrlain in the essay ‘Bàrdachd an Latha ‘n Diugh V’ (Autumn 1909).
Publications in Erskine’s Periodicals
- ‘K. W. G.,’ ‘An Sgoil Bheag agus a’ Mhaighdean-Mhara’ [play for children, GD], Volume II, Issue 1 (Spring 1910)
- ‘K. W. G.,’ ‘Cailleach Bheur’ [essay on folklore with extracts, GD], Volume II, Issue 2 (Summer 1910)
Resources
- Ronald Black, ‘Katherine Whyte (Catrìona NicGhille-Bhàin) 1845–1928,’ An Tuil: Anthology of Twentieth-Century Gaelic Verse (Edinburgh: Polygon, 1999)
- Elizabeth Ewan and Rose Pipes (eds.), ‘GRANT, Katherine Whyte, n. Whyte (K. W. G.),’ The New Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women (Edinburgh University Press; 2017)
- Sìm Innes, ‘Translated Drama in Gaelic in Scotland to c.1950,’ International Journal of Scottish Theatre and Screen 9 (2016)
- Sìm Innes and Kate Louise Mathis, ‘Gaelic Tradition and the Celtic Revival in Children’s literature in Scottish Gaelic and English,’ The Land of Story Books: Scottish Children’s Literature in the Nineteenth Century, eds. Sarah Dunnigan and Shu-Fang Lai (Glasgow: Scottish Literature International, 2019)
- Sìm Innes, ‘Dùsgadh na Féinne (1908): Katherine Whyte Grant’s Scottish Gaelic Kinderspiel,’ The Gaelic Finn Tradition II, eds. Sharon J. Arbuthnot, Síle Ní Mhurchú, and Geraldine Parsons (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2022)
- Priscilla Scott, ‘With heart and voice ever devoted to the cause’: Women in the Gaelic Movement, 1886–1914′ (PhD dissertation, University of Edinburgh, 2013)