Manuscripts of Works by Maurice Lindsay

This page lists highlights of Edinburgh University Library's collection of literary manuscripts by Maurice Lindsay.

Poetry

 

  • Four notebooks containing undated MS drafts of poems (Gen 2030/2-5)
  • Galley proofs for the 1946 collection The Enemies of Love (Gen 2030/24a)
  • MSS of the poems ‘Faint-Hert’, ‘Milk’, ‘The Philosophic Skunk’, ‘Romantics’, ‘Sightseeing, Philadelphia’, ‘Trees by a River’, and ‘Uprooted' (Gen 2030/23)
  • TS of 'Alba: A Seven-Pairt Fantasie, Dedicate til C. M. Grieve' (E.2000.16)

 

Fiction

 

The Maurice Lindsay Papers contain the following manuscripts, bearing witness to Lindsay's little-known work as a writer of fiction:

 

  • Broke the Fair Music, TS draft of an unpublished novel co-written with John Glaister (Gen 2030/1)
  • Partial MS of a further untitled novel (Gen 2030/17)
  • 'The Orra Man', TS of unpublished short story (Gen 2030/21)
  • ‘The Accident’, script for short story broadcast by the BBC Scottish Home Service, 18 December 1946 (Gen 2030/28)

 

Prose

 

There are notebooks containing manuscript drafts of the following publications:

 

  • Clyde Waters: Variations and Diversions on a Theme of Pleasure (1958) (Gen 2030/9)
  • By Yon Bonnie Banks: A Gallimaufry (1961) (Gen 2030/10-12)
  • The Discovery of Scotland (1964) (Gen 2030/8, Gen 2030/10)
  • The Eye Is Delighted: Some Romantic Travellers in Scotland (1971) (Gen 2030/6-7)
  • Portrait of Glasgow (1972) (Gen 2030/20)

 

There is also a manuscript draft and corrected typescript of the monograph Robin Philipson (1976) (Gen 2030/19).

 

Radio Plays/Dramatic Works

 

There are typescripts and other working materials for five radio plays:

 

  • Ayont the Border, or, A Burns Nicht in Elysium (Gen 2030/24f)
  • The Faa’s Revenge (co-written with Joyce Gordon Lindsay) (Gen 2030/24e)
  • Fingal and Comala (Gen 2030/13)
  • The Rage of Love (Gen 2030/14 and Gen 2030/16c)
  • Saint Magnus, Earl of Orkney (Gen 2030/24c)

 

Lindsay's passion for music is reflected in his libretto for Thea Musgrove's 1955 opera The Abbot of Drimock (Gen 2030/24d).

 

Other Radio Scripts

 

There are scripts for a number of programmes which Lindsay edited, produced, and/or presented for the BBC Scottish Home Service. These cover a wide range of Scottish literary and musical topics and include features on major figures in Scotland's 20th-century literary and musical renaissance including Hugh MacDiarmid and Francis George Scott. Programmes include:

 

  • Chapbook, 1947-1954 (Gen 2030/26a)
  • Arts Review, 1946-1953 (Gen 2030/26b)
  • Poetry Diary, 1947-1950 (Gen 2030/26c-e)
  • Scottish Life and Letters, 1949-1954 (MS 2030/27)
  • Music Magazine, 1946-1950 (Gen 2030/28)

 

At Gen 2030/28-29 there are also scripts for radio programmes for children including Children's Hour, Stories from Scottish History, and This is my Country.

 

Television Scripts

 

At Gen 2030/29 there are scripts for Border Television programmes which Lindsay produced and/or presented, including Borderline (1961-1968) and Focus (1961). The former include Lindsay's questions for interviews with Eric Linklater, Hugh MacDiarmid, and Compton Mackenzie.

 

Articles and Reviews

 

Gen 2030/24b contains a number of typescript reviews and articles on 20th-century Scottish poetry by Maurice Lindsay, along with some reviews of his own works. There are also manuscripts of articles on Francis George Scott and Scottish music at Gen 2030/16 and Gen 2030/18.  

Further Details

The above are highlights of Edinburgh University Library's extensive collection of Maurice Lindsay manuscripts. For a fuller listing, see the Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue and Handlist H56.

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