Description:
Allan Ramsay was central to all aspects of Scottish literary culture in the eighteenth century, working simultaneously in editing, playwriting, theatre management, song collecting and bookselling, as well as founding and directing Britain's first circulating library. It was, however, his own original work as a poet which had a transformative influence on the way in which Scottish literature would develop in the ensuing decades and, indeed, centuries. Emerging as a published author in the early 1710s, Ramsay built a remarkably prominent profile as a poet of the Scots language whose work appealed to a diverse range of readers, allowing him to produce prestigious subscribers' editions of his poems in 1721 and 1728 and to continue as a poet until his death in 1758. This definitive and ground-breaking edition of Ramsay's poems reflects the fifty-year career of an influential cultural and literary innovator, which will open new avenues for research.
Brief description: Allan Ramsay (c. 1684-1758) was a foundationally important poet, dramatist, song collector, theatre owner, cultural leader in art and music, and innovative entrepreneur in many spheres from language to libraries.
Review Quotes: These volumes engage in a long overdue and commendably serious reappraisal of this long-neglected poet. [...] Solid, well-grounded, and accessible, these valuable new studies mark a truly auspicious beginning for the Edinburgh edition of Ramsay's collected works.--Carol McGuirk "18th-Century Scotland"