Order Nr. 96673 BURNSIANA: A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE WILLIAM R. SMITH COLLECTION IN THE LIBRARY OF THE SUPREME COUNCIL, 33°, S.J. Larissa P. Watkins.

BURNSIANA: A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE WILLIAM R. SMITH COLLECTION IN THE LIBRARY OF THE SUPREME COUNCIL, 33°, S.J.

(Burns, Robert).

With a Foreword by Akram Elias, Grand Master of Free and Accepted Masons, Washington, D.C., Editor-in-Chief

  • New Castle, Delaware and Washington, D.C. Oak Knoll Press & Library of the Supreme Council, 33°, S.J., 2008.
  • 8.5 x 11 inches
  • hardcover
  • 240 pages
  • ISBN: 9781584562467

Price: $65.00  other currencies

Order Nr. 96673

First edition. Published shortly before the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns in 2009, this bibliography presents the unparalleled Burnsiana collection held by the Library of the Supreme Council of the Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, USA, the most complete collection of Burnsiana in the United States. The William Robertson Smith Collection is the second largest compilation of Burns materials in the world, ranking only behind the collection maintained in The Mitchell Library in Glasgow, Scotland. In terms of American material about Burns, the Library of Supreme Council has the world's largest collection. The contents of this collection, compiled over a lifetime by William Robertson Smith, are available to American and international scholars, historians, literary critics and linguists.

For Masons, because both Robert Burns and William Robertson Smith were Masonic Brothers, this catalogue is meaningful as a living memorial to international Masonic fraternal and literary traditions. Because of the paucity of bibliographic literature illuminating Burns' involvement in Freemasonry, the work contains a biographic sketch entitled "Robert Burns-Freemason" written by Robert L.D. Cooper. From a historical, bibliographical, informational and aesthetic perspective, the Burnsiana catalogue has no analog among currently existing bibliographies. The catalogue is illustrated by the engravings of several generations of artists that provide an image of the Bard of Caledonia and the scenes of Scotland that he loved, and which inspired his creativity. This bibliography is a distinguished gift from the Fraternity of Freemasons in honor of the 250th anniversary of the birth of this distinguished Scottish poet and Mason, Robert Burns.

Larissa P. Watkins is Assistant to the Librarian at the Library of the Supreme Council in Washington, D.C. Educated in the Russian Federation as a journalist and librarian, she holds an honors degree in Library Science from the Cultural Sciences Institute of Higher Learning in Ussurisk, Primorskiy Krai, and was Director of Acquisition and Automation at the State Scientific Library in the Maritime Provinces in Vladivostok. In this capacity, she represented the Library administration at annual national conferences in Moscow and Leningrad. In Russia, her book The Men of Dal'zavod was written as the official history for the 100th anniversary of the Dal'zavod, the largest shipyard in the Russian Far East. In the USA, Larissa is a member of Masonic Library and Museum Association and the author of three fundamental bibliographies published by Oak Knoll Press and the Library of the Supreme Council: American Masonic Periodicals: 1811-2001; International Masonic Periodicals: 1738-2005; and Our Very Illustrious Brother, Abraham Lincoln.