Robert Burns was set to emigrate to Jamaica, due to personal and farming problems, when Gavin Hamilton, a local lawyer, advised him to finance the voyage by publishing some of his poems. The success of ‘The Kilmarnock Edition’ as it came to be called, changed his mind. It was priced at three shillings per copy and all 612 copies sold out in just over one month after publication. Sales were secured in advance by subscription.
Only six of the original poems in manuscript form (given to Burns by John Wilson) survive in the safekeeping of The Irvine Burns Club and these are ‘The Twa Dogs’; ‘Scotch Drink’; ‘The Author’s Earnest Cry and Prayer’; ‘The Holy Fair’; ‘Address to the Deil’ and ‘The Cotter’s Saturday Night’.
It is estimated that there are fewer than 30 known copies of the book extant. The Mitchell Library is fortunate to have two copies in its collection.