List of books for the "Famous Scots Series"

This is a list of books published as the "Famous Scots Series" by the Edinburgh publishers, Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier, from 1896 to 1905. Forty-two of these books were published though least one volume in the series was planned but never published.^[1] These books are distinctive for their bright red covers and uniform presentation. They are generally of a quite high scholarly quality.^[2] The authors often had access to biographical material which is no longer available. Two versions of each volume were published. An upmarket version has gilted lettering and motifs on the front cover and has gilt tape as book marker. It is about a quarter of inch longer than the ordinary version which is gilted only on the edge.

Thirty-three of the authors were men and five were women. It appears that all the women were educated at home, presumably by tutors or governesses. Three of the women wrote biographies of Robert Louis Stevenson, namely, Margaret Moyes Black, Rosaline Masson and Eve Blantyre Simpson.

No more books in this series were published, as is evidenced by the following report in the New York Times in 1904:
"LONDON, Sept. 16. -- Andrew Carnegie has written a little book on James Watt, the great engineer. It will be the concluding volume of the Famous Scots Series, published by Messrs. Oliphant, Anderson Ferrier." ^[4]

References

1. ^ In some of the early books, e.g. The ‘Blackwood’ Group and Norman Macleod, a list of forthcoming volumes is given at the back. These include a work entitled Jeffrey and the Edinburgh Reviewers by Sir Hugh Gilzean-Reid but this was apparently never published for whatever reason.
2. ^ This list was compiled from a number of sources including library catalogues and websites such as Amazon.
3. ^ Hector Macpherson: The Man and his Work, A Memoir by his Son, Hector Macpherson. Edinburgh: W.F. Henderson, 1925, p.31
4. ^ THE NEW YORK TIMES. Saturday, September 17, 1904, Section: REVIEW OF BOOKS, Page BR625.