Angus Mackay

Angus Mackay, who also wrote as Oscar Dhu, was a poet and storyteller remembered for writing about Scottish pioneer communities in Canada. Contemporary and library records for his books connect him with works such as Donald Morrison, the Canadian Outlaw and By Trench and Trail in Song and Story, and the latter also lists earlier titles including A Tale of the Pioneers, Poems of a Politician, and Pioneer Sketches.

His writing has a strong working-life feel. In the introduction to By Trench and Trail in Song and Story (1918), he describes himself as a "non-college-bred lumberjack" and says many of his songs had been heard from British Columbia to the lumber camps of Maine. That gives his work an earthy, direct quality, shaped by camp life, frontier memory, and the experiences of soldiers and laborers.

Mackay's name stayed especially tied to the legend of Donald Morrison, the Québec outlaw whose story he helped popularize in verse. The available sources in this search also indicate that he died in Seattle in 1923. A clear, verifiable portrait image was not confirmed from the sources reviewed here.