Robert Burns, a Very Peculiar History by Fiona Macdonald

Author:Fiona Macdonald [Macdonald, Fiona]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: scotland, interesting, poet, bard, romantic, gift, writer, odd, Modern, scot, Biography & Autobiography, classic, Literature, poetry, celebration, information, history, European, author, quirky, tourism, Literary, English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, shanter, british, stories, 18th Century, night
ISBN: 9781908759368
Google: zd-7BAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
Published: 2012-01-23T23:23:44.109971+00:00

The work to be elegantly printed,

in one volume octavo.2

Price stitched,3 three shillings.

As the author has not the most distant

mercenary view in publishing, as soon as so

many subscribers appear as will defray the

necessary expense the work will be sent

to the press.

[Octavo: a small format, made by folding a sheet of paper to make 8 leaves; the actual size of the book depends on the size of the sheet; Stitched: The signatures (sections) of each volume would be firmly held together by stitching, ready for the purchaser’s individual choice of binding, in leather or cloth.]

This modest advertisement was sent out in April 1786; by midsummer, around 350 subscribers had come forward – enough to pay the printer, John Wilson of Kilmarnock. Burns was in business!

During the next few weeks, Burns spent a lot of time with the printers, carefully choosing which poems to include or omit (for fear of alienating his subscribers, Burns did not include religious satires or bawdy songs), and checking each stage of the production. He went to visit – and charm – more wealthy subscribers. He wrote, and later rather regretted, a preface for the book, in which he portrayed himself as being ‘in fear and trembling’ now that he had ‘presented himself to the public in the character of an Author’. He also protested (perhaps rather too much) that ‘just because he can make a shift to jingle a few Scots doggerel rhymes together’ that did not mean that he considered himself ‘as a Poet of no small consequence’.

In ‘presenting’ his works to the established literary world, Burns was being modest, as custom demanded. However, his apology for ‘Scots doggerel’ was expressed in the most correct, elegant, formal English. It rather irritated him that most readers still chose to think of him as an untutored ‘peasant poet’, rather than recognise him as a man of good taste and sophisticated literary talents.

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