Robert Burns (1759 –1796), best known for Auld Lang Syne, Tam o’ Shanter and A Red, Red Rose, is widely regarded as Scotland’s national poet. For over 200 years Burns Suppers, celebrating his life and work, are held across the globe around the date of his birthday, 25th of January (You can read a detailed breakdown of the evening here).
The first Burns Supper was held at his cottage in Alloway in 1801 on the fifth anniversary of his death by nine men who had known him in life. The following year they agreed to meet on his birthday; and the tradition quickly spread: with the first Burns Supper to be held outside of Scotland taking place in Oxford in 1806.
The book in the photographs was published by Collins Clear-Type Press in 1955. The collection of poems and songs, including some which had never been previously published, was edited and introduced by James Barke (1905-1958). Barke wrote an acclaimed five part novelisation detailing Burns’ short, impoverished and extraordinary life: The Immortal Memory (1946-54).
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James Bridie (1888-1951), whose real name was Osborne Henry Mavor, was a Scottish playwright, screenwriter and surgeon. He wrote 49 plays including The Anatomist (1931) about the infamous Burke and Hare murders. A success in London’s West End, in 1943 he founded the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow.
Bridie’s taste for the supernatural and macabre led to an association with Alfred Hitchcock. He wrote the screenplay for Hitchcock’s Under Capricorn (1949) and is unaccredited for his work on The Paradine Case (1947) and Stage Fright (1950).
The play in the photograph, Mr Gillie (1950), originally starring and directed by Alastair Sim, is representative of Birdie’s ‘problem plays.’ A ghostly Procurator and Judge must decide whether the recently deceased schoolmaster Mr Gillie is deserving of immortality; though he was an unsuccessful writer and the pupils he inspired have also failed to flourish artistically.
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Among Scotland’s rich history of publishing houses, is the short lived, yet highly influential Rebel Inc (1992 – 2001). Founded by Kevin Williamson, it evolved from a magazine that helped establish writers, such as, the then unknown, Irvine Welsh and Alan Warner. In 1996, after the success of Welsh’s Trainspotting, it teamed up with Cannongate Books and went on to challenge perceived conceptions of classic writing by publishing a diverse portfolio: from the out-of-print Alexander Trocchi to Charles Bukowski. Sadly, Williamson’s departure from Rebel Inc led shortly after to its demise as a publishing imprint.
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The photographs are of a first edition of The Book of Romance by the Scottish scholar Andrew Lang, who, amongst many other things, was an avid collector of folk tales and fairy stories and and is most well-known for his series of coloured fairy books. This book is a collection of stories based mainly upon Arthurian legends, including The Sword Excalibur, The Quest for the Holy Grail and Lancelot and Guenevere. The illustrator, Henry J Ford, was also responsible for illustrating Lang’s Fairy books and Arabian Nights. From the gold embossed front cover to the decorative end papers, it’s impossible not to fall in love with this Book of Romance.
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Judging books by their cover
