Letters from George Mackay Brown to Lawrence Millman

This fonds comprises 81 manuscript letters sent by George Mackay Brown to American writer and ethnographer Lawrence Millman, who was George M. Brown's only regular North American correspondent. Brown and Millman met in Stromness in 1977, and were friends for fifteen years. In his letters, Brown talks about his personal life and his writing, and refers to Millman's irish book Our Like Will Not Be There Again, as well as his prose poems. They corresponded throughout the 1980s, but in the 1990s Brown's health issues limited his letter writing.

The letters are arranged in chronological order; the first letter is dated 22 July 1977, and the last one, 12 February 1987.

Lawrence Millman (b. 1948) is a travel writer and mycologist from Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was a friend of Scottish writer George Mackay Brown, whom he met in Stromness in 1977, and whom he visited again in 1978 and 1979. Brown dedicated at least one poem to Millman, and wrote up two of his visits in his column Under brinkie's Brae.

Millman and Brown corresponded throughout the late 1970s and the 1980s, until Brown's ill health limited his letter writing in the 1990s.

Arranged in chronological order.

Open; permission has been given by the donor to read and photograph the letters.

Donated in Jue 2018 by Lawrence Millman. Accession no SC-Acc-2018-0143.

Catalogued in October 2018 by Aline Brodin.

Special Collections also hold the Papers of George Mackay Brown (Coll-50) .