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".
Stewart McLean
The son of David McLean, he was born and raised in Dauphin, Manitoba, and received a B.A. and an LL.B. from the University of Saskatchewan. McLean came down with tuberculosis before he entered service in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. He was called to the Manitoba bar in 1945, and served as Mayor of Dauphin from 1955 to 1958.