Sir Walter Scott Manuscripts

Acquisition of the Interleaved Set of the Waverley Novels (also called 'the Magnum Opus') is one of the greatest 'association copies' in English Literature, preserving in a vivid form the physical evidence of Scott's heroism as he laboured to pay off crippling debts. A special edition was created for Scott of all the works that had appeared up to 1827, each sheet interleaved with a blank for the author's notes. Thirty-two such volumes were created in which Scott wrote 1100 pages of additional material, plus introductions, corrections in the texts and fragments of two uncompleted novels. A further nine columes were made but not annotated. Together the volumes comprise Scott's entire prose fiction. The Scott material formerly in the collection of Carl Pforzheimer and forming part of the Pforzheimer Library in New York is a rich group of literary manuscripts and proofs which the National Library of Scotland was able to repatriate. The collection includes Quentin Durward and the stories forming the first and second series of Chronicles of the Canongate.