Archives and Special Collections: Literature

Chapbooks are pamphlets containing ballads, fairy tales and tracts, which were printed in the 18th and 19th centuries and sold by travelling pedlars. They were cheaply produced and were aimed at ordinary people, and so the quality is generally not high. The Library's collection features chapbooks printed in Scotland between 1790-1890. Many were printed in Stirling or Falkirk, but we also have examples from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Paisley, Airdrie and Fintray. Local chapbook printers include Charles Randall, Mary Randall and William Macnie.

Helen Burness Cruickshank (1886-1975) was a Scottish poet and suffragette. She was a friend and associate of a number of other Scottish writers including Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Hugh MacDiarmid, Violet Jacob and Marion Angus.

Contents: Books donated by Helen B. Cruickshank, mainly Scottish literature and culture. Manuscripts include correspondence, articles, notes, press cuttings and some photographs.

Our collection contains early editions of Charles Dickens works, including several novels as originally issued in serial form.

James Hogg (1770-1835) was a shepherd, but battled against a childhood of poverty in the Scottish Borders and a lack of formal education to become ‘the Ettrick Shepherd’, one of the most prolific Scottish writers of the nineteenth century. Today he is best known for his novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824), but he also produced other novels, volumes of poetry, stories, and essays.

Contents: early editions of Hogg's work; also manuscripts and private papers, including Hogg's surviving household and farm accounts for the period 1818-1835, correspondence with Margaret Phillips (later Hogg) during their courtship and marriage, the poet's journal of a tour to the Western Highlands and Hebrides in 1803.

Norman MacCaig (1910-1996), was a Scottish poet. His first collection of poems, Far Cry, was published in 1943. He continued to publish poetry throughout his life. He was Reader in Poetry at the University of Stirling from 1970 - 1978.

Contents: books (including many from MacCaig's personal collection of poetry), manuscripts (including a collection of 525 holograph poems sent by MacCaig to Miss Morven Cameron).

A complete collection of first editions of Sir Walter Scott's works, published during the author's lifetime.

As well as the various named special collections and archives, we have a supporting collection of old and rare books on 18th – 20th century Scottish (and some English and European) literature, history and philosophy.