He was one of Scotland’s greatest – but shyest – poets.
Now a hoard of personal artefacts which helped guide the career of Orcadian writer George Mackay Brown are to go under the hammer next month.
It is believed to be one of the biggest treasure troves of his personal collections to come up for auction and is expected to fetch up to £16,000 in total.
Dozens of manuscripts, notebooks, letters and handwritten notes kept by Mackay Brown will be auctioned in Edinburgh on February 14.
Auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull said the family of Mackay Brown’s literary executor, Brian Murray, a fellow Orcadian and long-time friend, has put the collection up for sale.
Highlights include a homemade childhood comic, a signed copy of his first poetry collection, The Storm, and copies of the college magazine he worked on.
Rare books from his own collection will be sold off, including signed copies from friends and mentors Ted Hughes, Edwin Muir, Seamus Heaney and Hugh Mcdiarmid.
One lot features 20 Mackay Brown works which have been signed or inscribed by the writer. Another features 50 leaves of notes, including what are described as “thoughts on literature and life”. One lot, containing notes and essays from Mackay Brown’s postgraduate research into English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, is expected to fetch up to £1,800.
Born in Stromness, in Orkney, in 1921, Mackay Brown was known as a recluse who, after attending Edinburgh University as one of the “Milne’s Bar” writers, spent most of his life on Orkney.
Cathy Marsden, specialist in rare book and manuscripts at Lyon & Turnbull, said: “George Mackay Brown is widely considered to be one of the 20th century’s greatest Scottish poets. He is a very important and influential poet – important to Scotland and especially to Orkney.
“This collection does give an insight to what his interests were and he made notes about the authors etc.
“An example of his early interest in writing can be found in his homemade magazine The Celt, which he distributed to friends as a teenager. At this time, he was taken ill with tuberculosis, which would affect him for many years to come. The illness also prevented him from enlisting in the army during the Second World War and, in turn, allowed him to begin a career as a journalist with the Orkney Herald in 1944.
“This is probably one of the biggest collections of Mackay Brown material to ever come up at auction. I would expect a lot of interest to come from people in Orkney, as well as from institutions. The 17 lots are a wonderful collection of one of the great 20th century poets.”
