Portrait of Compton Mackenzie

Birthday profile

Compton Mackenzie

Scottish writer, cultural commentator, raconteur and nationalist (1883-1972)

Born
January 17, 1883
Died
November 30, 1972
Zodiac sign
Capricorn
Birth year
1883

About Compton Mackenzie

Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie, was a Scottish writer of fiction, biography, histories and a memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong Scottish nationalist. He was one of the co-founders in 1928 of the National Party of Scotland along with Hugh MacDiarmid, Cunninghame Graham and John MacCormick. He was knighted in the 1952 Birthday Honours List. Mackenzie is perhaps best known for two comic novels set in Scotland: Whisky Galore (1947) set in the Hebrides, and The Monarch of the Glen (1941) set in the Scottish Highlands. Scott Fitzgerald, whose first book, This Side of Paradise, was written under the literary influence of Compton. In 1922, Robin Legge, chief music critic of The Daily Telegraph, encouraged Mackenzie to write some of the earliest gramophone record reviews. In 1923 he and his brother-in-law Christopher Stone founded The Gramophone, the still-influential classical music magazine.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Compton Mackenzie timeline

  1. In 1922, Robin Legge, chief music critic of The Daily Telegraph, encouraged Mackenzie to write some of the earliest gramophone record reviews.
  2. In 1923 he and his brother-in-law Christopher Stone founded The Gramophone, the still-influential classical music magazine.
  3. Mackenzie is perhaps best known for two comic novels set in Scotland: Whisky Galore (1947) set in the Hebrides, and The Monarch of the Glen (1941) set in the Scottish Highlands.

The world when Compton Mackenzie was born

Compton Mackenzie was born in 1883. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineBrooklyn Bridge opens after 14 years of construction
  • Technology milestoneFirst standardized time zones adopted
  • World population~1.43B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderChester A. Arthur
  • U.S. population52.8M

1883 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Compton Mackenzie's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18832026
Population52.8M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.