Overview

This issue of Studies in Scottish Literature has two very different special sections, as well as a broad range of articles and shorter contributions. With thirty contributors, from eight countries, representing over twenty different universities, the issue illustrates Scottish literature's growing international reach. Opening the issue is the first SSL Debate, eighteen short contributions in which scholars in Scotland and elsewhere respond to the recent BBC Scotland poll on Scotland's Favourite Novel?, arguing on behalf of Scottish novels they think were undervalued by the BBC voters or that should have been on the ballot, but weren't. The section is introduced by Professor Willy Maley, discussing the purposes and limitations of such lists. Full-length articles in the issue include: * Jacquelyn Hendricks, on Gavin Douglas and Caxton * Ian C. Robertson, on James Beattie's The Minstrel * Clark McGinn, with new documents on Burns and Jamaica * Richie McCaffery, on Tom Scott as a religious poet * Ian Brown, on Anne Marie Di Mambro's Tally's Blood The SSL Research Symposium, on "New Developments in Robert Burns Bibliography," prints four papers given at the National Library of Scotland in March this year. Introduced by Professor Gerry Carruthers, it includes papers by Craig Lamont, Patrick Scott, Iain Beavan, and Robert Betteridge. The issue concludes with briefer research notes, including a survey of digital resources for Scottish neo-Latin writing, and reviews or brief notices of recently published books on Scottish literature. Founded in 1963, Studies in Scottish Literature, the first refereed scholarly journal in its field, remains a leading forum for scholarly discussion and research. Edited by Patrick Scott and Tony Jarrells, of the University of South Carolina, with the support of a distinguished international advisory board, the journal publishes articles on all periods of Scottish literature.