Literary gem

Like history’s booker short list

John Murray is a famous London imprint that was founded by Edinburgh-born John Murray in 1768. One of its more recent Scottish authors was the great poet and novelist George Mackay Brown. Since the 18th Century seven generations of the Murray publishing family have been building an outstanding collection of letters, manuscripts and business papers belonging or pertaining to some of the most famous names in Britain, Europe and America’s literature and public life. Authors include William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Jane Austen, Benjamin Disraeli, William Ewart Gladstone, Herman Melville, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Darwin and J.M. Barrie (the Scots creator of Peter Pan). The collection which amounts to over 150,000 documents has become known as the John Murray Archive. In addition to this glittering list of authors’ names are artists such as J M W Turner who provided the illustrations for many Murray books.

It was recently announced that Heritage Lottery Fund support of £17.7 million was confirmed for the National Library of Scotland’s bid to buy the Archive: a fitting gem for the UNESCO City of Literature. Over the next few years, thousands of items will become available to the public for the first time at the Library. A series of projects will widen access via a dedicated reading room, exhibitions and the web. A permanent exhibition will open in the summer of 2007. Martyn Wade, National Librarian, said: “We are delighted at the Heritage Lottery Fund’s announcement. The John Murray Archive is the most important archive to become publicly available in the last 100 years, and is now secured for the nation.”

Among the delights is the most extensive and important collection of Byron’s papers in the world recording his literary life and public career, his complicated private and family affairs and the enduring impact of his personality on all those encountered. There’s also Jane Austen writing about the publication of ‘Emma’ and Sir Walter Scott offering his opinion on everything from the ‘Quarterly Review’ to political issues. John Murray published the revolutionary work by Charles Darwin, ‘On the Origin of Species’, in 1859 after which many other scientists turned to Murray with their manuscripts. Notable names include Charles Babbage, Michael Farraday and Sir Charles Lyall. Travel and Exploration, Economics and Politics, Scholarship and the Arts are also widely represented in the archive.

But not all the archive is comprised of the literary canon’s A list. The B list is equally fascinating, Scottish Geologist Sir Roderick Murchison amongst them. Russians from the city of Perm should be especially interested in this new resource as, in 1841, Sir Roderick named one of the periods in the geological system ‘Permian Red Sandstone’ in honour of their city after his visit to the Urals were he identified the rocks at 140 to 185 million years old. Perm is the size of Glasgow and the surrounding Oblast is bigger than Scotland. Permian Red Sandstone was used for the extension of the Museum of Scotland and in 2005 a group of Russian school children from Perm visited Murchison’s birthplace at Muir of Ord.

Literature is all about making connections and libraries such as the National Library of Scotland are like massive hubs of knowledge. The John Murray Archive doesn’t only add to the Library’s prestige but also to Edinburgh’s already glowing reputation as a world centre for literature.

The first ‘City of Literature’

Edinburgh has long inspired the storyteller and poet. Modern classics like The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Trainspotting have Edinburgh as their backdrops and the streets and vennels the famous Inspector Rebus treads are Edinburgh’s. Edinburgh is also the home to leading writers like J.K.Rowling and Alexander McCall Smith, even if Edinburgh itself is not their main subject. And each summer the tented village in Charlotte Square, also known as the Edinburgh International Book Festival, attracts hundreds of the world’s top writers and many thousands of readers to enjoy the written word. The festival, now over twenty years old, is the world’s biggest public book festival.

So, maybe it’s not surprising that Edinburgh is now the world’s first ‘City of Literature’. The idea of a formal ’City of Literature’ designation came about because four booklovers thought that Edinburgh, and indeed, Scotland, should take on responsibility for the future development of a literary culture that has distinguished and enlightened our country’s past.

In October 2004, a delegation from Edinburgh and the Scottish Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, presented the city’s case at UNESCO’s Executive Board. Within hours of the formal submission of the bid, the proposal was given absolute approval and praised enthusiastically by more than 100 ambassadors in attendance. This marked the beginnings of a global enterprise, a network of cities of literature celebrating, sharing and developing their literary culture.

As the first UNESCO City of Literature, Edinburgh became the founding member of the new Creative Cities Network. It will play a pioneering role in the network, which seeks to harness the creative potential of cities around the world in the fields of literature, cinema, music, folk art, design, media arts and gastronomy.

Edinburgh and its future partner cities of literature will encourage literary exchange, join in cross-cultural initiatives and build relationships through a shared passion for the development of a local, national and international literary culture.

Promoting reading and writing

Edinburgh is also the home of the Scottish Book Trust and The Scottish Publishers Association (SPA). Housed in an old mission hall off the famous Royal Mile the Scottish Book Trust is Scotland’s national agency for reading and writing. It is a unique organisation committed to the promotion of reading and books. Its aim is to make every child a reading child, every adult a reading adult, and every reader a lover of good books. It also administers the Live Literature programme that assists schools, communities and readers’ and writers’ groups all over Scotland pay for writers to give readings or run workshops.

The SPA is a trade association of almost 80 Scottish publishers. It is housed in an old library building along with the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the City of Literature staff. What was once a brewing quarter of the city is now a literary hub. Founded in 1973, the SPA assists members with the marketing of their books to the widest possible readership within the UK and overseas. On members’ behalf, the SPA attends many national and international book fairs and exhibitions, including London Book Fair, Frankfurt Book Fair, Bologna Children’s Book Fair, BookExpo, Gothenburg Book Fair, Prague BookWorld, Scotland’s International Trade Fair, and the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Publisher’s treasure

Scotland of course has been a centre for publishing over the centuries – great publishing names like Chambers, Harper-Collins and Bartholomews being synonymous with this country. Today there are many new names in the publishers’ lists from presses like Luath to a medium-sized publishing house like Mainstream. One of the best known is Canongate Publishing who have gained an international reputation for innovation and inspired choices. So the arrival of the John Murray Archive at the National Library is like the jewel in Edinburgh’s and Scotland’s literary crown.