Early Life
Donovan was born in Maryhill, Glasgow, to a Catholic mother, Winifred (née Phillips), a factory worker, and a Protestant father, Donald Leitch, a Rolls Royce factory employee. He contracted polio as a child. The disease, and subsequent treatment, left him with a limp. In 1956, his family moved to Little Berkhamsted near Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Influenced by his family's love for folk music, he began playing guitar at 14. He enrolled in art school but dropped out soon afterwards, determined to live out his beatnik aspirations by going out on the road.
Read more about this topic: The World Of Donovan (1969 Album)
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“I believe that if we are to survive as a planet, we must teach this next generation to handle their own conflicts assertively and nonviolently. If in their early years our children learn to listen to all sides of the story, use their heads and then their mouths, and come up with a plan and share, then, when they become our leaders, and some of them will, they will have the tools to handle global problems and conflict.”
—Barbara Coloroso (20th century)
“There is ... an organic affinity between joyousness and tenderness, and their companionship in the saintly life need in no way occasion surprise.”
—William James (1842–1910)