Dr Andrew Nash: EDITION Autumn Lecture and workshop

Reader in Book History, Institute of English Studies, Andrew Nash, will give the Edition Autumn lecture, titled 'The Voice of Scotland: Literature, Publishing and the Nation in the 1930s'. It will be chaired by Professor Alex Thomson (School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures), and held in the Collections Space, Centre for Research Collections (CRC), 6th Floor Main Library at 4pm to 5:30pm. You can find the booking details and full description below.

The Autumn lecture will be preceded from 2pm until 3pm by an optional workshop at the Centre for Research Collections. This workshop is titled 'Publishing the Scottish Literary Renaissance', and will also be led by Dr Nash.

Capacity for this workshop is limited, so please book separately for the Autumn lecture and the workshop.

You should arrive at the Main Library foyer around fifteen minutes before either the workshop or lecture starts and give your name at the desk to the right of the main entrance doors. A member of staff will direct you to the 6th floor, which is accessible via lifts. There are lockers at the Centre for Research Collections where you should deposit coats, bags, food and drink, and anything that might damage the rare books. Information about visiting the Centre and accessibility is available on the library's website.

Visit the library's website

The Voice of Scotland was a series of eight books published by George Routledge & Sons over 1935 and 1936. Best known for providing the forum for Edwin Muir’s controversial analysis of ‘the predicament of the Scottish writer’ in Scott and Scotland, the series as a whole has been judged a seminal project of the Scottish Literary Renaissance. But who was behind this project? How did the choice of topics and authors arise? And how should we read this ‘survey of Scottish problems’ in the context of broader debates about literature, publishing and the nation in the 1930s?

This lecture will relate the long gestation of the series, recounting the parts played by Hugh MacDiarmid and Lewis Grassic Gibbon, among others, and explore how its hidden history can shed new light on a critical decade for literary culture, politics, and nationalism in Scotland.

This workshop will explore some of the material forms in which the work of writers associated with the inter-war Scottish Literary Renaissance circulated. Participants will examine a selection of books, journals and pamphlets from the 1920s and 1930s, in addition to archival documents drawn from the University Library’s Heritage Collections, and discover more about the wider publishing contexts that energised the revival in Scottish writing in this period.

If you choose to attend the workshop, please remember to provide your name as you enter the Main Library so you can be admitted.

About Edition

Edition (formerly the Centre for the History of the Book) is a collaborative initiative at the University of Edinburgh supporting new research in all aspects of the history of the book, from traditional forms of bibliography, codicology and textual editing to the latest theoretical and digital innovations.

Access and recording

Please note that this lecture is a free, in-person event held on the University of Edinburgh campus. It will not be live streamed - tickets are for access to the venue. However, the lecture may be photographed and/or recorded and added to the University website afterwards. If you would prefer not to appear in any recordings, please contact us in advance or speak to us on the day. It's not a problem.

After the event

We may like to contact you in the future to hear what you thought of the lecture and invite you to other Edition events. Please tell us at the time of booking if you are happy for us to do that.

Event venue & nearby stays

Centre for Research Collections, Level 6, University Library,, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

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