Helen Cruickshank Papers

The Helen Cruickshank Papers (Coll-81) include working materials for Cruickshank's major publications and correspondence with the leading lights of the Scottish Literary Renaissance.

There are working materials for all of the collections of poetry published in Cruickshank's lifetime, as well as manuscripts of individual poems, short stories, and plays. There is a complete manuscript of Cruickshank's posthumously published autobiography, along with other autobiographical sketches. Critical and biographical material includes essays and talks on such figures as Hugh MacDiarmid, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, William Soutar, and Marion Angus.

There are major collections of letters from Hugh MacDiarmid and Lewis Grassic Gibbon, together with correspondence from many other Scottish writers including Marion Angus, George Mackay Brown, Neil M. Gunn, Maurice Lindsay, Norman MacCaig, F. Marian McNeill, Naomi Mitchison, Nan Shepherd, Sydney Goodsir Smith, and William Soutar.

There are photographs of Cruickshank taken by Gordon Wright and further photographs, some by Cruickshank herself, of the writers Catherine Carswell, Fionn MacColla, Hugh MacDiarmid, and Nan Shepherd. Finally there are many personal items, including notebooks, address books, engagement diaries, drawings, and documents relating to Cruickshank's Civil Service career.

The Cruickshank Papers are an invaluable resource for researchers interested in all aspects of Cruickshank's writing career, including her little-known work as short-story writer and dramatist. They also represent a vital archive for the history of the Scottish Literary Renaissance movement and of 20th-century Scottish women's writing.

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Cruickshank in Other EUL Collections

There is further material of Cruickshank interest in other EUL collections of Scottish literary manuscripts, including poems sent by Cruickshank to Hugh MacDiarmid, letters from George Mackay Brown to Cruickshank, and letters from Cruickshank to George Mackay Brown, Hamish Henderson, Maurice Lindsay, Tom Scott, and Hugh MacDiarmid (including a telegram informing MacDiarmid of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s death).

Cruickshank's Library

Edinburgh University Library also holds eight books from the private library of Helen B. Cruickshank, including inscribed copies of works by George Mackay Brown and Norman MacCaig.