I have written a lot about diasporic enthusiasm for Scottish culture. Usually, I’m thinking about music, but today’s archival materials embrace almost every topic under the sun. If it can be taught, then educational materials can be published. And thus it is that I encounter an American author’s proposal to Thomas Nelson’s in Edinburgh, which bears out everything I’ve ever said about people’s affinity with the Auld Country. (Not to mention the annoying ‘Scotch’, a term unused by Scots!)
Thus I have a hankering, just for the romance of it, to have some of my verse published in Edinburgh, especially since I hope to be in that city in the not very far future […]
I can almost hear echoes of Brigadoon in the distance. But, the poet is practical. Recognising the paper shortages at the time (post-World War 2), the enthusiastic poet offers money to help defray initial costs, because …
Once out, I believe both of us will profit by its […] appearance.
There was only one problem. The editor replied,
We regret very much, however, that we are not publishing poetry at the present time.
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 