Details
BURNS, Robert (1759-1796). Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. Edinburgh: for the author, and sold by William Creech, 1787.
8o in half sheets (225 x 146 mm). Half-title and stipple-engraved frontispiece portrait by J. Beugo after A. Nasmyth. UNCUT IN ORIGINAL BLUE-GREY PAPER BOARDS (rebacked, inner hinges split but cords holding); green buckram box. Provenance: Robert Douglas (contemporary inscription on upper cover) -- Captain Barrington Campbell, Scots Fusilier Guards July 27 [18]07 (ownership inscription above and below half-title) -- purchased from Scribner Rare Books, New York, 26 February 1970.
Second (first Edinburgh) edition, this copy with "Boxburgh" instead of "Roxburgh" in the list of subscribers but with "skinking" correctly spelt on page 263. Wilson declined to print the second edition since Burns was unable to advance the £27 needed for enough paper to print a thousand copies. The immense number of 1625 subscribers eventually necessitated a run of 3000 copies which were printed by William Smellie of Edinburgh and published on 17 April 1787. To ensure that demand could be met, major portions of the volume had to be set in type twice, which accounts for some 300 variant readings. Subscribers paid 5 shillings, non-subscribers 6 shillings, per copy. Creech took 500 of the 2876 copies subscribed for, but his delay in settling accounts led Burns to express the wish that he be "streekit out to bleach/In winter snaw." The second edition contained 22 additional poems. It was probably on Creech's advice that Burns abolished the "an," "et" and "'t" endings of words, substituting "in'" or "ing" for "an," and "it" for "et," in order to reduce the element of dialect. The original preface was replaced by a 4-page dedication to the members of the Caledonian Hunt, the list of subscribers ran to 38 pages, while the glossary was also enlarged. Egerer describes copies in original boards as "very rare." Egerer 2; Rothschild 556; Tinker 452.
8o in half sheets (225 x 146 mm). Half-title and stipple-engraved frontispiece portrait by J. Beugo after A. Nasmyth. UNCUT IN ORIGINAL BLUE-GREY PAPER BOARDS (rebacked, inner hinges split but cords holding); green buckram box. Provenance: Robert Douglas (contemporary inscription on upper cover) -- Captain Barrington Campbell, Scots Fusilier Guards July 27 [18]07 (ownership inscription above and below half-title) -- purchased from Scribner Rare Books, New York, 26 February 1970.
Second (first Edinburgh) edition, this copy with "Boxburgh" instead of "Roxburgh" in the list of subscribers but with "skinking" correctly spelt on page 263. Wilson declined to print the second edition since Burns was unable to advance the £27 needed for enough paper to print a thousand copies. The immense number of 1625 subscribers eventually necessitated a run of 3000 copies which were printed by William Smellie of Edinburgh and published on 17 April 1787. To ensure that demand could be met, major portions of the volume had to be set in type twice, which accounts for some 300 variant readings. Subscribers paid 5 shillings, non-subscribers 6 shillings, per copy. Creech took 500 of the 2876 copies subscribed for, but his delay in settling accounts led Burns to express the wish that he be "streekit out to bleach/In winter snaw." The second edition contained 22 additional poems. It was probably on Creech's advice that Burns abolished the "an," "et" and "'t" endings of words, substituting "in'" or "ing" for "an," and "it" for "et," in order to reduce the element of dialect. The original preface was replaced by a 4-page dedication to the members of the Caledonian Hunt, the list of subscribers ran to 38 pages, while the glossary was also enlarged. Egerer describes copies in original boards as "very rare." Egerer 2; Rothschild 556; Tinker 452.