One of the world’s best Robert Burns archives has just got better thanks to a donation of books from the Netherlands.
Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries has accepted a treasure trove of Burns-related books from enthusiasts in Maastricht that will boost its renowned John Murison Collection.
Among the 138 books – which belonged to the Dutch literary scholar Max de Haan – is an 1801 edition of Burns’ breakthrough collection, Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect.
There are also French, German, Italian and Russian editions of the Bard’s verse and five Burns-themed books written by Professor de Haan, who died in 2020.
Professor de Haan was an honorary member of the Robert Burns Society Maastricht, whose president Dr Marcel Herpers presented the books to library staff in Dunfermline.
The Maastricht gift joins the 1700 artefacts collected by Glasgow seed merchant Murison. His archive is cared for by cultural charity OnFife, which runs Carnegie Library & Galleries.
Murison’s collection was bought by the principal builder of Rosyth Naval Base, Sir Alexander Gibb, who gifted it to Dunfermline Carnegie Library in 1921.
The donation from Maastricht also includes an illustrated edition of Burns’ poems, produced to mark the bicentenary of the Bard’s birth in 1958.
Another book, published in 1962, was the first to include 60 Burns poems of the Bard which were previously seen as of dubious content.
A further highlight is a Burns bibliography by J W Egerer, published in 1964. Experts at the National Library of Scotland have described the book as ‘a detailed and wonderful resource.’
Egerer’s book – appropriately, for one gifted from overseas – charts how Burns’ work spread across the globe as more and more publishers produced editions of his verse.
Marcel Herpers contacted OnFife after reading an online news article about a Burns display that took place at Carnegie Library and Galleries in January.
The article alerted the Burns Society Maastricht to the Murison archive and convinced them that Dunfermline would be an ideal home for Professor de Haan’s Burns collection.
Dr Herpers and his wife, Rina, brought the professor’s collection to Dunfermline in person.
OnFife Local Studies Officer Sara Kelly says: “We are so grateful that the Maastricht Burns Society decided to get in touch – this most generous gift adds real depth to a wonderful collection.”
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For further information contact Sheona Small, press officer, 07809 727 989 or email sheona.small@onfife.com
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