This October we celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Edinburgh becoming the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature, the founding city in what is now an international network of 53 Cities of Literature in 39 countries around the world. Looking back, we can hardly believe it’s been two decades. The National Library of Scotland was at […]
Author: Staff Writer
Pen Names: Doris Lessing to Jane Somers
When you ask yourself why a writer might choose to use a pen name, what springs to mind? Perhaps you think of the famous female writers of the nineteenth century, like the Brontë sisters, for whom publishing under their real names would have risked not being published at all. Or you think of it as […]
Ian Rankin and the Missing Person Case of Jack Harvey
In 1993, the novel ‘Witch Hunt’ appeared in bookshops. But who was the author, Jack Harvey, seemingly a first-time novelist? Given his now familiar status as the biggest-selling contemporary writer of crime fiction in the UK it is hardly a secret. But at the time this was not an easy mystery to solve. Harvey was […]
The life and poetry of Phillis Wheatley Peters
As part of Black History Month the Library has a display in the Special Collections Reading Room (SCRR) celebrating the work of Phillis Wheatley Peters. Peters was a talented poet and believed to be the first Black American to publish a book of poetry. This blog will look at her life and poetry. Born possibly […]
Refugee Week at the National Library — Sound and Voice
Scotland has three official languages, but countless others have echoed through its streets and floated over its airwaves. From poetry to protest chants, the speech and song of the immigrants and refugees who have made their homes in Scotland have enriched the soundtrack of Scottish life. Pause for a moment to imagine the long-gone soundscape […]
Scottish South Asian Voices in Broadcasting
Over the last six months as an intern at the National Library of Scotland, I have undertaken the project ‘Scottish South Asians in Broadcasting’. This project draws on the Library’s vast collections, particularly the Moving Image Archive and Sound Collections, to identify underrepresented stories relating to the South Asian contribution to broadcasting in Scotland. The […]
A Natural Treasure
Isobel Wylie Hutchison features in our ‘Treasures of the National Library of Scotland’ exhibition. Her diaries, manuscripts, photographs, artwork and film all reveal a woman who loved to travel, but also one whose connection with the outdoors was important: I had heard the call of the wild, on star-lit nights under the Northern Lights. I […]
Changing gender in Metamorphoses
Ovid’s Metamorphoses has almost 12,000 lines and covers over two hundred and fifty Greek Myths. As the name suggests each of these myths involves some kind of transformation for the characters within it. Some of these transformations are from mortal to immortal, from human to animal and from human to plant, as well as a variety […]
Variations on a Theme: The Court Case of Marianne Woods and Jane Pirie
In 1810 the schoolteachers Marianne Woods and Jane Pirie found their Edinburgh boarding school abandoned after the rapid removal of every single pupil by their parents. The reason for this exodus stemmed from the accusations voiced by their pupil Jane Cumming who informed her grandmother that the two teachers were in a sexual relationship. Horrified […]
Sir Walter Scott and the historical novel
Last year marked the 250th anniversary of the birth of one of Scotland’s greatest literary talents, Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832). The Wizard of the North, as he became known, enjoyed a towering reputation throughout the 19th century and was one of the most important figures in the development and popularisation of the historical novel. The […]