Butcher's Broom
First Edition:
BUTCHER'S BROOM | BY | NEIL M. GUNN | [line] | [space] | EDINBURGH | [line] | THE PORPOISE PRESS
Collation:
[A] (8), B - I (8), No J, K - U (8), No V & W, X - Z (8), 2A - 2D (8), 216 leaves.
p. [1] BUTCHER'S BROOM; p. [2] By the same author; p. [3] Title page; p. [4] Publisher's and Printer's notices: FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1934; p. [5] TO JOHN GEORGE SUTHERLAND; p. [6] Acknowledgement that poems used are taken from "Carmina Gadelica"; pp. 7 - 429 Text; pp. [430] - [432] blank.
5" x 7 5/8". Bound in green cloth, spine stamped in gold: BUTCHER'S | BROOM | [ornament] | NEIL M. GUNN | [space] | PORPOISE | PRESS
Other Editions:
Harcourt, Brace | New York | 1935 (With the title "Highland Night" and illustrated by Freda Bone)
Westermann | Braunschweig | 1939 (With the title "Exiles from their Father's Land. Extracts from the novel "Butcher's Broom" | W.Frerichs, ed.)
Cedric Chivers (at the request of the London and Home Counties Branch of the Library Association) | Bath | 1965
Souvenir Press | London | 1977
Walker and Co. | New York | 1994
An extract entitled "Dark Mairi" and comprising chapter 1 of part 1 of the novel appeared in: The Scots Magazine | Dundee | July 1934 | pp. 264 - 274.
Storm and Precipice | Faber and Faber | London | 1st. October 1942 | pp. 126 - 139.
An extract entitled "The Swallow", comprising part of p. 31, appeared in: Storm and Precipice | Faber and Faber | London | 1st October 1942 | p. 38.
An extract entitled "Singing Linnett", comprising part of p. 344 and pp. 345 - 351 of the novel appeared in: Storm and Precipice | Faber and Faber | London | 1st. October 1942 | pp. 140 - 146.
An extract comprising part of p. 31 appeared in: Glimpses of Gunn | Ann Yule and Alan Haldane | Neil M. Gunn Memorial Trust | Dingwall | 1990 | p. 45.
An extract comprising part of p. 116 appeared in the 1994 Caithness Calendar (August) | North of Scotland Newspapers | Wick | 1993
An extract comprising part of p. 34 appeared in the 1994 Caithness Calendar (September) | North of Scotland Newspapers | Wick | 1993
Birlinn | Edinburgh | 2006
Notes:
According to Professor F.R.Hart in his "A Brief Memoir" (Neil M. Gunn: The Man and the Writer | A.Scott and D.Gifford, eds. | William Blackwood | Edinburgh | 1973) the character of Dark Mairi is based upon an old woman Gunn saw at a ceilidh in Inverness.
The dedicatee was Gunn's brother in law, the police chief at Invergordon.
An historic story set in the Strath of Kildonan, Sutherland in the period leading up to and including the infamous "Clearances". It gives a vivid portrayal of the way of life which was destroyed and, whilst the deed is rightly condemned, Gunn treats the problem with objective reasonableness.