Title page of first Edinburgh edition. Notice the oval-shaped "offsetting" from the facing
 portrait frontispiece 
 

Final stanza of "To a mouse"

Detail from Beugo's frontispiece portrait of Burns.  The
 poet is known to have distributed copies of this image
 to fans as he travelled the country, much as modern
-day celebrities hand out autographed photos

Added manuscript verse to "Tam Samson's Elegy"
 

Detail from the fifth stanza of "The Holy Fair" with Burns' manuscript addition

 

Detail from the twelfth stanza of "The Holy Fair". The "Moodie" to
 whom Burns refers is Rev. Alexander Moodie (1728-99),
 the University of Glasgow educated minister of Riccarton

The glossary of Scots terms included in the first Edinburgh edition helped acquaint those unfamiliar with
 the language to its peculiarities

Burns was born on 25th January 1759 in Alloway, a small rural community in Ayrshire. Early life for the poet, as for most of his contemporaries, would have been hard. Upon reaching his early teens Robert was accustomed to heavy manual labour on the family plot at Mount Oliphant; by fifteen he was the principal labourer - a boy doing a man's job.

Detail from the glossary

This song, based on a traditional ballad dating back
 to the 16th century, hints at how Burns was
 influenced by the Scottish folk tradition

First stanza of "Address to Edinburgh". This poem illustrates how Burns was perfectly
 capable of composing in the stiff, formal, contemporary style. Many modern
 commentators disapprove of the poem, describing  it as a "duty poem" -
 uncomfortable and pompous

Signed title page to Burns' own copy of Smith's "Wealth of Nations"
 (Sp Coll RB 2943).  Burns had a great respect for Smith's work;
he is known to have commented "I could not have given
 any mere man credit for half the intelligence Mr Smith
 discovers in his book" 

Burns' first published work appeared in late July 1786: Poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect printed in Kilmarnock by John Wilson. The volume succeeded instantly, selling out its run of six hundred copies within a month. Emulating his poetic hero Robert Fergusson (1750-1774), Burns had skilfully balanced his collection by combining the nostalgic and antiquarian Scots tradition with the best traits of English poetry. In Daiches' words "sometimes he uses an English just tipped with Scots, sometimes the Scots element is more pronounced, sometimes it is overwhelming." The end result was a work that proved popular to people across the social spectrum. Burns quickly became the toast of the Edinburgh literati; in a review for The Lounger the celebrated author Henry Mackenzie (1745-1831) described him as a "heaven-taught ploughman".  Mackenzie saw the poet as a natural genius - a view that many historians believe was deliberately cultivated by Burns through an understating of his education in the preface to the Kilmarnock volume.

Detail from the preface of Burns' 1786 Kilmarnock edition (Sp Coll 21)
in which, commentators argue, he deliberately downplays
 his own education
 

The first page of the subscribers list.  Notice the names John Crighton and J. McRobert at the head of the
 page. While the scripting of Crighton's name
 resembles Burns' handwriting,  both names are
 probably the autographs of early owners

Detail from the subscribers list.  In addition to adding the name of an extra subscriber, Burns has scored
 out the "Esq" after Robert Alexander's name - perhaps suggesting that it was printed in error. Work by
Egerer has identified many of the original subscribers.  Burns' correction throws new light upon Egerer's
 note on Alexander, which states that the only possible subscriber with this name  was a watchmaker in
 Leith, "but the title "Esquire" precludes any possibilities of [it] being the same man"

"On scaring some waterfowl in Loch Turit" - written into the end flyleaves of the volume.  The poem, conceived in October 1787, describes the sporting
 outings Burns enjoyed while staying with the Murrays in Ochtertyre.
Click on the picture for a larger image.

Detail from "On scaring some waterfowl in Loch Turit".  Burns uses very
 evocative language to describe his surroundings
 

"Written in the hermitage at Taymouth". First composed in August 1787, the
 poem was published in the Edinburgh Evening Courant a few weeks later.
Click on the picture for a larger image.
 

Detail from "Written in the hermitage at Taymouth"

 

"Written at the Fall of Fyers". This poem was composed in September 1787 when the poet and his companion,
 William Nicol, travelled down the shores of Loch Ness.
Click on the picture for a larger image.
 

Detail from "Written at the Fall of Fyers". Burns' use of conspicuously "Gothic" descriptions is notable.
 On the influence of the Gothic in contemporary literature Quennell writes "one of the chief functions
 of creative art is to constantly reinterpret nature. ... Mountains, hitherto regarded as annoying
 natural obstacles, [become] pregnant with " ideas of religion and poetry"; and gothic ruins
 ... voted deeply moving and sublime. "Horrid" became a poetic keyword;
 fear, a favourite literary emotion."

The binding of our first Edinburgh edition

Wilmerding's bookplate - from the front pastedown of
 the volume