Raasay
The poet Sorley MacLean was born in Osgaig, a small crofting community on the west coast of the island; perhaps his most famous poem is about "Hallaig", an abandoned community on the east coast. MacLean's writings often combine an ancient traditional awareness, with a modernist political outlook, in which Raasay, and the areas adjacent to it are frequently referenced. But while MacLean's work dwells on the brutality of war, of the Highland Clearances and modern exploitation, he also writes about nature. Thus, although the Clearances leave an empty landscape populated only by the ghosts of those evicted or forced to emigrate, "Time, the deer, is in the Wood of Hallaig".
Andrew Dyas MacLean
Andrew MacLean was born in Toronto, the only child of Hugh Cameron MacLean and Elizabeth ('Bessie') Emma Matilda (née Dyas) MacLean. His mother died when he was six months old and he was raised by his maternal grandmother, Emma Ball Dyas. His grandfather, Thomas W. Dyas, was the advertising and circulations manager of "The Toronto Mail" and of the "Toronto Empire", and a founder of A. McKim and Company, the first advertising agency in Canada. MacLean was educated at Appleby College, Upper Canada College, and University of Toronto Schools.