Memoirs of 88 Years

The autobiography for Prof. Alexander Falconer Murison called Memoirs of 88 Years 1847-1934 A.F Murison was published in 1935 by his two sons following his death. It details information of the family going back through several generations. Only 100 copies were ever printed & were for private circulation only. I have traced 5 of them. I have copies 11 & 32. I acquired no 11 an immaculate copy from Rare Book shop in Edinburgh June 2009. Sandy Birch, Coffs Harbour, Australia has copy no 9. Mary-Lou Watson (great grand-daughter of AF Murison) has 2 copies.

Where are the other copies?

Simon Corcoran & a colleague of his, each have a copy of the Memoirs and has written the following:

I noted your page about the Memoirs and the numbered copies. I have a copy of the Memoirs and, although it contains the page mentioning the 100 copies, the individual number has been left blank. This makes me think that, after the 100 numbered copies were distributed to friends, family, colleagues etc., further unnumbered copies were also sold or given away. I suspect, therefore, that there were more than 100 copies in all. Possibly the archives of Aberdeen University Press would have some information about the publication history (I believe these are held at the University of Aberdeen, as you might expect!). I note from the combined universities catalogue (COPAC: http://copac.ac.uk/ ) that there are 7 copies recorded for British academic libraries: the British Library (London) [no. 64 of 100], National Library of Scotland (Edinburgh) [no. 67 of 100], Bodleian (Oxford), Cambridge University Library, University College London library (my college), Aberdeen University and St. Andrews. Of course, there may be other copies not on electronic catalogues (although that is increasingly unlikely). I note that there is also a copy in the library of the Middle Temple.

Extracts from Memoirs of 88 Years:

Chapter 1 P1
Chapter 1 P2&3
Chapter 1 P4&5
Chapter 2 P6&7
Chapter 2 P8&9
Chapter 2 P10&11

NB a plaque was placed on the side of Hope Cottage Hope nr Brucklay the Birth Place of AFMurison.

Hope cottage is on google maps with post code AB42 4RA. Click here to see it.

Murison papers by A. F Murison