George Mackay Brown papers

Scope and Content
Files of material by George Mackay Brown collated by type (essays, short stories, poetry, plays, novellas, novels) and ordered chronologically within this. This collection includes manuscripts and typescripts of a number of the author's bestknown works, and also includes rarer and unpublished material.
Administrative / Biographical History
George Mackay Brown (1921-1996) was born in Stromness in the Orkney Islands and lived there all his life; apart from the time he spent as a student at Newbattle Abbey College in Dalkeith, and at the University of Edinburgh where he studied English. He began his literary career as a poet (his first collection of poetry, The Storm, was published in 1954) and he soon expanded his repertoire to include several collections of short stories, five novels, numerous plays, children's books and collections of local journalism. Along with Peter Maxwell Davies, Brown set up the inaugural St Magnus Festival in 1977. He was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Book Prize in 1988 and won the Saltire Book of the Year Award in 1994 - the same year that he was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his novel Beside the Ocean of Time. He is the author of over fifty works, including a posthumously-published autobiography and over eighteen volumes of poetry.
Access Information
Open
Conditions Governing Use
Permission to reproduce material for commercial purposes must be sought from the literary executor.

Scope and Content