George Mackay Brown Correspondence
This page offers a guide to highlights of the correspondence in Edinburgh University Library's George Mackay Brown Papers (Coll-50).
Further correspondence is listed in Mackay Brown Materials in Other EUL Collections, including letters from Mackay Brown to Helen Cruickshank, Maurice Lindsay, and Fred Urquhart.
Correspondence with Scottish Writers
The George Mackay Brown Papers contain correspondence to or from the following important Scottish writers:
Stewart Conn
- Letter to Stewart Conn, poet and BBC drama producer, 16 July 1967, providing an interpretation of Brown's play 'A Spell for Green Corn' (Gen 1865/7)
Helen Cruickshank
- 2 letters to Cruickshank, 29 December 1965 and 21 January 1966 (Gen 1779)
Willa Muir
- 7 letters to Willa Muir, 1964-68 (Gen 1868/6)
Charles Senior
- 189 letters and 12 postcards to Charles Senior, 1961-72 (E2000.11) (also 11 letters and 2 cards to Carol Senior)
Sydney Goodsir Smith
- Letter to Sydney Goodsir Smith, 7 December 1967 (Gen 1779)
Other Correspondence
The George Mackay Brown Papers also contain letters from Brown to his one-time fiancée Stella Cartwright (MS 3117); and letters to Brown from artists Erland Brown (the writer's nephew) (MS 2846/2/8) and Rosemary Roberts (MS 3118/16e); publishers Chatto & Windus (MS 2842/1/12/2), the Hogarth Press (MS 3111/4/7), John Murray (MS 3113/1/3, MS 3115/3f), the Orkney Press (MS 3118/17g), and Gordon Wright (Gen 2110/11); writers Denys Val Baker (E96.18), William Montgomerie (MS 3116/2e), and Hope Tod (E2009.38); peace and environmental activist Satish Kumar (E 98.24); and booksellers Colin Huggett and Debra Swinley (E98.25-26).
Finally, we also hold correspondence between George Mackay Brown and Edinburgh University Library, including letters dealing with Mackay Brown's successful application for a summer job at the Library in 1957 (Gen 767/9 and Gen 1777).
Further Details
For a fuller listing of correspondence, see the Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue and, for post-1987 accessions only, Handlist H50. For pre-1987 accessions, see the manual Index to Manuscripts held in the Centre for Research Collections, Edinburgh University Library.