Author: DOUGLAS (Alexander):
Title: Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect.
Description: Cupar-Fife, Printed by R. Tullis, for the Author, 1806. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 12mo (in 6s), 12 x 109 mms., pp. [iii] iv - xx, 203 [204 Errata], including list of subscribers, uncut, with some leaves unopened, contemporary marbled boards, rebacked with later pink spine, with original label preserved, corners worn, a little general wear to binding and extremities, but a good copy. Douglas (1772 - 1821) came from Strathmiglo, near Cupar, where this volume was one of the many imprints of the Tullis Press. Douglas is, of course, using the same title that Burns used in 1789, but James Nicol also published two volumes with the same title in the same year, as did David Anderson, among others. Douglas was probably the least well-educated of the versifiers who used the title. The Preface tells us a little about his life, but in general terms, noting, for example, and this "parents indulged his taste for reading..." He was employed as a cow-herd as a very young boy, became an apprentice to a linen-weaver at fourteen, etc. The verses saw the light of publication thanks to a doctor who was attending Douglas and who thought them worthy of publication. The nine-page list of subscribers suggest that his admirers did a lot of leg-work to ensure that the volume was a success, which it was, earning for its author the sum of £100. Doughty 13, one of the earliest Tullis Press imprints.

Keywords: poetry education literature Scottish Enlightenment


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