Editing Robert Burns for the Twenty First Century.

Robert Burns is Scotland's most iconic poet and a 'world-historical' figure whose poetry has been translated in numerous languages. However, current editions of his work (e.g. Kinsley 1968) are, because of new discoveries and new approaches to textual criticism, seriously outdated. The new OUP Edition of the Works of Robert Burns, the focus of the current application, will be the most authoritative yet produced, allowing a comprehensive reappraisal of the writer's achievement.
The edition will include newly-discovered material: more than three dozen letters; around 150 manuscripts relating to the poet; a number of new print discoveries, particularly from contemporary newspapers and periodicals; and more than 160 letters written to him which the OUP edition will publish for the first time. There are currently no accurate or appropriately annotated editions of major, under-researched texts: Burns's two 'Tour Journals' (of the borders and of the highlands) and his two 'Commonplace books'. New manuscript or printed copy versions of Burns's poems mean that at least two dozen require major textual reassessment, and there are other texts whose misattribution to Burns has been demonstrated by recent discoveries in the periodical press of the 1790s.
The complete body of poetry requires new annotation in the light of our greater understanding of Burns's time, e.g. our increased knowledge of the politics of individuals that Burns was writing about and for, and our better understanding of eighteenth-century pastoral (enhanced by recent critical trends) allows us to re-read Burns's poems from 'agrarian' or 'environmental' standpoints. The first linked PhD studentship will engage with these latter approaches, and will feed into the edition. New research on eighteenth-century varieties of Scots and contemporary Scottish Standard English makes it possible to supply Burns's poetry and songs with a much more authoritative and comprehensive linguistic apparatus than has been possible hitherto. The OUP edition will seek to extend the investigation of Burns's usage of Scots even further, and the second linked PhD studentship on Burns's handling of Scots and English will be an integral part of the project.
The specific focus of the first five years of the project, and the focus of this application, is towards producing three volumes: (1) the first-ever edition of Burns's collected prose (excluding letters) including among its major items, the Tour and Commonplace journals, as well as pieces of occasional journalism and excise documents by Burns in his capacity as a 'gauger' or taxman (where these throw important light on his biography); and (2 & 3) two volumes of Burns's songs. Full musical settings (not hitherto available in modern editions) will be provided by going back to the original song-editing projects contributed to by Burns in the 1780s and '90s. This re-setting will be accompanied by much new research into Burns's musical sources including possible variant melodies and fiddle tunes that he chose or adapted.
Our editorial practice is radically innovatory, making use of Web 2.0 techniques to create a community of editors and readers surrounding the printed volumes. An online Burns Portal will offer access to a variety of Web 2.0 services, such as blog, wiki, Facebook and Twitter services which will enable readers to engage with and comment on the intellectual underpinnings of the edition. Online images of the manuscript materials will be presented, together with explanations of the editorial process, with discussion of the transcription process, the variants and explanations of the editorial decisions taken. In the case of the songs, musical performances will be made available via i-Tunes and YouTube. There will also be blog and wiki presentations of relevant aspects of material culture (including book history), and of literary and general history.

As well as providing major academic benefits, the volumes of the Oxford University Press edition of the Works of Burns will address the interests of a large international community of 'amateur' and 'leisure' interest. Setting aside William Shakespeare, Burns is unique among British writers in his 'outreach' appeal. The Burns Federation comprises some 380 plus Burns Clubs world-wide in all the inhabited continents of the world, with a total membership of more than 40,000 and a readership for its journal, the Burns Chronicle, of some 4,000 individual subscribers. This constituency abroad represents not only ancestral or expatriate Scots, but many others who are simply interested in the poetry, prose and songs of Burns (Burns has been translated into at least 35 different languages). One estimate has it that annually there are c.900,000 'Burns Suppers' worldwide, and the writer's value to the Scottish economy over the past decade has been calculated at around £160 million per annum, comprising both significant 'tourism' and 'home spending' revenue. In short, Robert Burns is an 'industry', with very considerable economic as well as cultural impact.

Several Burns discussion websites and many Burns Club websites are busy hubs of discussion on many different aspects of the life and works. For the past four years, the PI has been organiser of a one-day Burns conference at the Mitchell Library, Glasgow and (in 2009) a three-day Burns conference at the University of Glasgow. In total, these five conferences have attracted 943 paying participants (75% being 'non-academics'). The Mitchell Library and the National Library of Scotland (both with hugely significant Burns and Scottish Poetry collections) have extended special access rights to the new edition. The PI represents the University of Glasgow on the Distributed National Burns Collection, comprising national and local authority institutions with artifact as well as literary holdings in Burns. He is also Consultant on the BBC Scotland online project which is recording Burns's entire oeuvre read by major actors. The touring Burns exhibition (2009), 'Zig Zag', on which the PI acted as academic consultant, emerged from this grouping. Several members of the editorial team also acted as advisers on the recent refurbishment of the Burns Birthplace Museum (NTS), and Murray Pittock's recent 'Beyond Text' grant award from the AHRC will ensure that such 'memorialisation' concerns articulate with the work of the edition for Burns's very wide audience. Murray Pittock's new work follows on from his highly successful AHRC-funded 'Global Burns' (2006-2009) Network that has done much to re-focus serious attention on Burns's European reputation and the writer's critical history generally.

The Burns Federation has already expressed strong support for the new Glasgow OUP edition, and it is clear that the process of the edition will be keenly followed by many enthusiasts. There is no doubt that the proposed virtual exhibition space, the CDs, podcasts and workshops proposed as part of the project would attract great attention beyond the academic community. In several recent speeches both the First Minister and the Culture Minister of the Scottish Government have referred very warmly to the new edition as a key twenty-first century portal for Scotland's greatest international cultural icon. Plans are in place for a display area for the edition in the Holyrood Parliament. The General Editor and other members of the editorial team have appeared on numerous occasions on television programmes for BBC1, BBC2, BBC (Scotland), Scottish Television and on Radio 2, Radio 4, BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Radio Ulster to discuss various aspects of Burns, on documentaries, news and popular entertainment programmes, and BBC Scotland is discussing with the PI marking the edition's start with a programme fo