Murray Pittock

Studies in Scottish Literature 46.2 Murray Pittock

This special issue of Studies in Scottish Literature, guest-edited by Professor Murray Pittock and Dr. Craig Lamont of the University of Glasgow, is the first to focus on the early 18th-century Scottish poet, dramatist, editor, and publisher Allan Ramsay (1786-1758). The contributors are all connected with the major AHRC-funded research project, the Collected Works of Allan Ramsay, based at Glasgow, and now in progress for publication by Edinburgh University Press. Professor Pittock's preface surveys the recent growth of interest in Ramsay, and the role of the Glasgow edition and editorial team in that growth. This is followed by seven essays with new research on different aspects of Ramsay's achievement: Murray Pittock on Allan Ramsay: Romanticism and Reception; Rhona Brown on Sociability in Ramsay's The Fair Assembly; Craig Lamont on The Gentle Shepherd and Ramsay Country; Ralph McLean on Ramsay and 18th-century Scoto-Latinity; Steve Newman on Improvement in The Gentle Shepherd; Brianna Robertson-Kirlkand on the Gentle Shepherd songs; and Jeremy Smith on Ramsay, Ruddiman, and "Methodising Scots."Murray Pittock, FRSE, is Bradley Professor of English at the University of Glasgow, General Editor of the Collected Works of Allan Ramsay, and author, among many other books, of Enlightenment in a Smart City (Edinburgh University Press, 2019), about Ramsay's Edinburgh. Craig Lamont is Research Associate in the Centre for Robert Burns Studies, University of Glasgow, and author of The Cultural Memory of Georgian Glasgow (Edinburgh University Press, 2021). 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.