Lot 279
Lapraik, John
Poems, on Several Occasions
Auction: Books & Manuscripts | 01 October 2026 from 10am | Lots 253 to 285
Description
Kilmarnock: John Wilson, 1788. 8vo in half-sheets (20.7 x 12.2cm), viii 240 pp., contemporary calf, spine and joints reinforced with clear self-adhesive tape, contents spotted, ownership inscription dated 1845 to title-page [ESTC T124917]
Footnote
First and only edition of the sole published work by a local protégé of Robert Burns, printed with Burns's encouragement by Kilmarnock printer John Wilson, two years after Wilson had published the Kilmarnock edition of Burns's Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. Very rare: this is the first complete copy identified as appearing at auction for over 50 years.
John Lapraik was an Ayrshire farmer who was ruined by the collapse of the Ayr Bank in 1773 and spent time in a debtors' prison, where he seems to have assumed the role of prison bard. 'Early in 1785 Burns heard the song 'When I upon thy bosom lean' at a 'rocking', or social gathering, in his house at Mossgiel Farm, Muirkirk. Learning that Lapraik was the author, he made his acquaintance, and within the year addressed to him his three famous 'Epistles'. Lapraik's other significant connection with Burns, according to local legend at least, is that he helped inspire the sentiments of 'Is there for honest poverty' ('A Man's a Man for a' that') … Burns's generous patronage encouraged Lapraik to publish his verses, which appeared at Kilmarnock in 1788 as Poems on Several Occasions' (ODNB).