The Kilmarnock Burns: A Census by Allan Young and Patrick Scott (review)

It makes perfect sense that the first book by the National Poet of Scotland is a literary and cultural treasure. This book–Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect–published in the summer of 1786 by John Wilson, in Kilmarnock, now referred to simply as 'The Kilmarnock Edition' or 'The Kilmarnock Burns', represents the commencement of a world poet in print. It features famous poems such as 'To a Mouse' and 'A Cotter's Saturday Night', cutting satire like 'The Holy Fair', a series of epistolary verses, songs, epitaphs, epigrams, and a glossary for those unfamiliar with the Scottish dialect. But before all this the reader encounters an epigraph on the title-page, in which Burns establishes himself astutely as 'The Simple Bard, unbroke by the rules of Art'. In the Preface, Burns assures the reader that he is 'unacquainted with the necessary requisites for commencing Poet by rule'. By styling himself thus, Burns's genius took on a natural and untainted shine, leading him from rural Ayrshire into the fold of the literati in Edinburgh in the space of a year. All of this and more is accounted for in Allan Young and Patrick Scott's Census, which is comprehensive and useful, filling a major gap in the field of Burns studies.

Their Census goes beyond the general story of the Kilmarnock Edition. Of the 612 copies printed by Wilson, they were able to locate eighty-four. Scott makes the point that it is therefore 'three times rarer than the Shakespeare First Folio'. Following a thorough history of the printing, publication, and reception of the book by Scott, 'The Kilmarnock Census' itself traces a line through these eighty-four copies, from the Balliol College copy in Oxford to the third of Dr William Zachs's three copies in Edinburgh. The structure of the Census is both clear and useful: Part A contains the sixty-nine copies in institutional ownership, arranged alphabetically; Part B contains the fifteen copies in private hands. A third and final section makes every effort to identify some of the 528 copies either lost or unlocated. While it functions less effectively as a tool for the bibliographer or buyer, Part C actually helps bring some of the finer details of the history of this book to the fore. Beginning with the Subscription List of April 1786, Young and Scott have pulled together an impressive chronology of the distribution of the Kilmarnock Edition from its conception through to 2017. Included in this chronology are original sales records, notes from Burns's letters, Historic Burns Club Minutes, newspaper articles, scholarly monographs, articles, auction catalogues, websites, and obituaries. Helpfully, they have formatted this section so that summaries shaded in grey are cross-referenced back to Parts A or B (that is, located copies), meaning that unshaded paragraphs refer to copies not included in the Census. This 'Conspectus' therefore collates information on the unlocated copies, such as the one Burns presented to Elizabeth, Dowager Countess of Glencairn in December 1786, or the many nineteenth century sales in Edinburgh and London which are now not traceable.

But the real strength of the work can be found in Parts A and B, wherein Young and Scott offer a great amount of detail about each of the eighty-four located copies, very often in more detail than the public would find in the catalogues of the libraries in which the book is stored. Although each entry depends on the information available, the shelf mark (for institutional copies) is followed by a note of the size, binding, and condition of the copy in question. Where possible, information on inscriptions, provenance, and acquisition is provided. There are also accompanying notes on the further history of some copies, complete with references for readers to follow. This rigorous detective work has created a comprehensive and unprecedented record, and it turns up some interesting things. Firstly, it shows the journey of this book...