Document Type
Catalog
Publication Date
7-1998
Abstract
This catalog accompanied the exhibit of writings by and about the Scottish poet James Macpherson (1736-1796) which welcomes to Thomas Cooper Library the eighth W. Ormiston Roy Memorial Visiting Research Fellow, Dr. Valentina Bold from the University of Aberdeen. It is not always fully appreciated that, in addition to its outstanding holdings of Robert Burns and Burnsiana, the Roy Collection also encompasses extensive holdings of many other Scottish poets, more particularly from the early 18th century onwards. Each summer the Ormiston Roy Fellowship, endowed by Dr. and Mrs. Roy in memory of Dr. Roy's grandfather, brings to the University a scholar to research some topic appropriate to the collection's strengths. Dr. Bold's research interest in Macpherson provides a good opportunity to showcase the Roy Collection's extraordinary depth of material on a once widely-influential writer who deserves renewed critical attention. What is on exhibit here is only a sampling of the Macpherson material available in Thomas Cooper Library; the Roy Collection has not only many more British editions and reprints, but also many American printings, many examples of contemporary efforts at versifying Ossian, much material on other poets' response to Ossian, and additional items on the debates over authenticity. The exhibit also gives opportunity to include and acknowledge other recent acquisitions: a first edition of James Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, donated by Dr. Donald Kay, and Hill Burton's Life and Correspondence of David Hume, from the James Willard Oliver David Hume Collection. Thanks are due to the South Caroliniana Library for loan of Macpherson's late pamphlet on American independence, from the books of Professor Yates Snowden.
Recommended Citation
University of South Carolina, "University of South Carolina Libraries - James Macpherson & Ossian, July 1998". http://scholarcommons.sc.edu/rbsc_pubs/47/
Comments
The July-September 1998 USC Libraries exhibit accompanied by this catalog, James Macpherson & Ossian, was mounted to welcome to the Thomas Cooper Library the eighth W. Ormiston Roy Memorial Visiting Research Fellow, Dr. Valentina Bold, from the Universtiy of Aberdeen.