Explore correspondence between senders and recipients of letters and documents in the Burns Collection.
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Letter from Robert Burns to John Ballantine, 20 November 1786
In this short letter, Burns describes the leap he is about to take: going to Edinburgh to produce the important second edition of his Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. This book would establish the poet's fame. In the letter, he wishes to arrange a meeting with Robert Aiken and John Ballantine, two early supporters of the poet from Ayr.
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Burns travels to Edinburgh and spends the winter there, meeting many patrons, artists and writers.
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Henry Mackenzie reviews Poems, Chiefly in a Scottish Dialect for the Lounger magazine, casting Robert Burns as ‘this heaven-taught ploughman’.
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William Creech publishes a subscription proposal for printing a second edition of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, in Edinburgh.
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Alexander Nasmyth paints a portrait of Robert Burns for the Edinburgh edition of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect.
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Mozart writes the opera Don Giovanni.
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Fragment of a letter from Robert Burns to John Ballantine, 24 February 1787
This is a fragment of a letter which Burns wrote to John Ballantine, advising him that the Edinburgh edition of his poems is about to go into print. This fragment relates to him sitting for a portrait to go on the frontispiece.