author
Angus Mackay
1864–1923
A Scottish-Canadian poet and storyteller who wrote under the pen name Oscar Dhu, he is best remembered for turning local history and frontier life into vivid verse and narrative. His work helped preserve the voice of Gaelic-speaking communities in Quebec and the wider Canadian experience of the early 1900s.
1 Audiobook
By Trench and Trail in Song and Story
by Angus Mackay
About the author
Born in 1864 and later known by the pen name Oscar Dhu, Angus Mackay was a Scottish-Canadian author, editor, and poet. He became especially associated with the Scots communities of Quebec's Eastern Townships, where his writing drew on local history, pioneer memory, and the culture of Gaelic-speaking settlers.
He wrote works including The Canadian Outlaw, a poem that romanticized the story of Donald Morrison, and By Trench and Trail in Song and Story (1918), a collection of songs and verse shaped by camp life, war, and everyday Canadian experience. Contemporary records also describe him as a former editor of the Sherbrooke Daily Record who later spent years in Seattle.
Mackay died in 1923. Though not widely known today, his writing remains of interest for the way it captures regional identity, oral tradition, and the humor and hardship of the communities he wrote about.