The G. Ross Roy Collection of Robert Burns: An Illustrated Catalogue

This illustrated catalogue of the collection's expansive holdings is being published in 2009 on the occasion of Burns's 250th birthday as a guide to the current collection for researchers and collectors alike

Of the approximately six thousand items described in the catalogue, the largest sections are works by Burns and items of Burnsiana. These include not only separate editions of the poet's major works but also editions with distinctive bindings and variants. Among the notable highlights is one of only two known first-edition copies of The Merry Muses of Caledonia (1799) and the only one with a complete title page. The collection also includes sixteen of the twenty-one known variants of the 1827 reprint edition of that work. Also detailed are landmark collections of Burns, including the exceptionally rare Kilmarnock edition (1786), the 1787 Edinburgh edition with more than thirty annotations in Burns's hand, the 1787 London edition, and James Currie's 1800 edition. The collection includes as well Burns's annotated copy of John Moore's novel Zeluco and a copy of The World with more than sixty ascriptions and comments in Burns's hand. The catalogued Burnsiana features almost every book-length study of the poet as well as numerous pamphlets and books with significant sections about Burns.