Collected Works

Numerous collected editions of Burns's work have been published.

William Scott Douglas's six-volume edition is outstanding among all of the nineteenth century editions in terms of completeness and scholarship.

The first three volumes contain the poetry, and the prose works in the three final volumes include some sixty-eight previously unpublished letters or parts of letters.

It is, in the words of Burns's bibliographer, J.W.Egerer, ' a monunmental edition in many ways, and has more than eased the burden for later scholars in the field.' Robert Burns (1759-96) was the eldest son of seven children, born to a cotter near Alloway in Ayrshire, Scotland.

He received a broad education, reading voraciously and aquiring a thorough grounding in English and a knowledge of Mathematics and French.

He began writing occasional verses whilst still at school and was writing prolifically by 1784.

When his first collection Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect was published in Kilmarnock in 1786, it was an immediate success.

Burns wrote with equal facility in English and in his native Scots, the Scottish poems owing much to old Scottish songs and the early Scottish poets. His work was greatly admired by his contemporaries, Lamb remembering that in his own youth ' Burns was the god of my idolatory' .

His best known lyrics, such as 'Auld Lang Syne ' are familiar throughout the English speaking world, and his popularity with his fellow country men is reflected in celebrations held all over the world on 'Burns Night', 25th January, his birthday.