Scope and Contents The papers consist mainly of letters written by authors to Blackwood as their publisher, and by others in search of publication, but they also include some manuscripts and proofs of works considered for publication, together with some papers of William Edmondstoune Aytoun and John Wilson ('Christopher North'). Broadly, this is the incoming correspondence of the firm during the nineteenth century. The outgoing correspondence, so far as it is represented by copies in letter-books, etc.,...

Scope and Contents

Twenty-two of the letters are addressed to William Maginn and relate mainly to the affairs of ‘Blackwood's Magazine’, including the dispute between Blackwood and Richard Martin as a result of references to the latter in the 'Noctes Ambrosianae'. Throughout there are references to Sir Walter Scott, John Gibson Lockhart, John Galt, and other literary figures. At the end (folio 50) is an apparently unpublished review by William Maginn of William Thomas Brande's ‘Manual of Pharmacy’.