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Facsimile edition of this classic book first published in 1841.
This edition of The Old Red Sandstone is the first truly new one for a century. It comes in two volumes: Volume 2 reprints the original, and now rare, first edition in facsimile with notes and glossary. Volume 1 explores how Miller wrote his book and why it was so important.
Ross-shire born polymath Hugh Miller (1802-56), self-taught stonemason, geologist and writer, was famous in his lifetime across the English-speaking world. On one level, The Old Red Sandstone is a description of the geology of Cromarty, Ross-shire, with diversions into its scenery, history and folklore, but it is also an autobiographical memoir and work of literature. It was enormously popular on its first publication in 1841.
The editors have combined their expertise – in history, English literature, Celtic languages and culture (Ralph O'Connor) and palaeontology, museums, history of geology (Michael A. Taylor) – to annotate the text of this most idiosyncratic book for a new generation of readers, and to provide a critical study. In a pre-Darwinian era, Hugh Miller reconciled his geological knowledge with his religious beliefs and his reader-friendly writings encouraged in others an interest in fossils. His writings are, as novelist James Robertson says in the Foreword, still very readable and relevant today.
Volume 1
Foreword by James Robertson
Conception and Gestation: Why Miller wrote The Old Red Sandstone
Anatomy: The book's structure and content
Poetics: How The Old Red Sandstone works as literature
Birth: How the books was published and marketed
Reception: How and why it was read
Appendix 1: How Miller turned his Witness articles into a book
Appendix 2: The events surrounding the British Association meeting of 1840
Appendix 3: Miller's subdivision of the old red sandstone
Appendix 4: Geology amd palaeontology then and now
Appendix 5: The fossil specimens figured in the first edition of The Old Red Sandstone
Appendix 6: Following in the footsteps of Miller
Appendix 7: Recommended reading
Volume 2
Forematter and frontispiece
Explanation of the sections and plates
Facsimile edition in 14 chapters
End matter
Additional notes
Glossary
Ross-shire-born Hugh Miller (1802-56), self-taught stonemason, geologist and writer, was famous in his lifetime across the English-speaking world. A social commentator and crusader, he also, pre-Darwin, inspired in others an interest in fossils. This two-volume set of books includes a facsimile edition of his classic The Old Red Sandstone, first published in 1841.
Dr Michael A. Taylor is a Research Associate at the Department of Natural Sciences, National Museums Scotland, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester. He is the author of the biography Hugh Miller: Stonemason, Geologist, Writer and he edited the facsimile edition of Hugh Miller's The Cruise of the Betsey with Rambles of a Geologist, both published by NMSE - Publishing.
Professor Ralph O'Connor is a Professor in the Literature and Culture of Britain, Ireland and Iceland at the University of Aberdeen.
'A critical study of Hugh Miller's nineteenth-century geological writings, this two-volume set delivers a great deal of collective wisdom couched in impressively elegant prose.' Judges of the Research category in Scotland's National Book Awards 2023 in announcing The Old Red Sandstone as the winner.
