A Life of Soolivan: Based on the Recollections of John MacLeod, Gael, Traveller, Rebel, Convict and Raconteur by Calum Ferguson

Book Description

Secondhand. Good condition. Wear to book corners and edges, particularly to right corners. Previous owner has added a large inscription to half-title page. Faint marks on book foredges.

In 1889, Iain Tharmoid Uilleam of the Barantaich sept of the Lewis Macleods was born at 11 Port Mholair, a mile from the outmost headland of An Rubha, Lewis.

In the rough, harsh world of his teenage years, his prowess as a street-fighter earned him the nickname 'Soolivan' (after John L. Sullivan, World Heavyweight Champion). A born rebel, he railed against every discipline and was always in and out of trouble.

Entirely unsuited for a settled existence, he sampled his first taste of freedom when he ran away to sea at the age of 16, and subsequently lived an itinerant life in many parts of the world: the Canadian prairies before the First World War, America during the Prohibition era (much of which he spent in prison), Australia during the Depression, as well as Patagonia, Fiji and Turkey.

Ending up in the notorious Tuxpan Jail in Mexico, he was released only after the involvement of the British consul, and he returned to the family croft in Lewis, where he lived until his death, twenty years later, in 1956. (publisher blurb)