Ian Hamilton Finlay, poet and artist, was born October 28, 1925 in Nassau, Bahamas to James and Annie Finlay. At age six he moved to Scotland for boarding school and would remain there for most of his life.

After serving in the Royal Army Corps during World War Ii, Finlay married Marion Fletcher and began working as a shepherd in the 1950s. During this period, Finlay began to write short stories and poetry. During the 1960s, Finlay became involved in the concrete poetry movement, and it is for his output during this period that Finlay first gained wide recognition.

Concrete poetry is best described as an aesthetic movement in poetry, in which the visual and phonetic perception of language is explored, rather than exclusively considering the meanings of words. As a concrete poet, Finlay challenged contemporary critics to reconsider their conception of poetic language, and the intersection between language and visual arts. Although few British critics responded positively to Finlay’s poetry, he was celebrated in Germany and the United States.

Finlay was married for a second time in 1964 to Sue MacDonald-Lockhart, with whom he had two children, Alec and Allie. By the late 1960s, Finlay had begun to explore conceptual art more generally. When Finlay and his family moved to a farm in Dunsyre, near Edinburgh, he began working on his most ambitious project: an intricately designed “garden poem” 20 years in the making.

Ian Hamilton Finlay died in Edinburgh on March 27, 2006.