Compiled by Graeme D Eddie, Edinburgh University Library, Special Collections Division.
The novelist Samuel Rutherford Crockett was born in Little Duchrae, near New Galloway, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, on 24 September 1860. He studied at Edinburgh University, at Heidelberg, and at Edinburgh's New College. He graduated from Edinburgh University in 1879. Crockett entered the Free Church of Scotland in 1886 and was a minister for some years in Penicuik , Midlothian, where he was ordained. With the success of early novels such as
The papers of Samuel Rutherford Crockett consist largely of correspondence. Content is varied, as are the correspondents, and the letters include those to Ashcroft Noble, mentioning Barrie, Lang, Ian Maclaren, and Stevenson, 1894; to W. K. Dickson, 1895; to I. W. Austin, 1906; to the Rev. William Thomson, 1913; and to bookseller and librarian in Penicuik. There is also a postcard photograph of Crockett. The letters are about the sale of his novels, thanks, requests for loans of books, honour banquet, and illness.
Letter to J. W. Austin received January 1967, Accession no. E67.29. Letter purchased 1972, Accession no. E72.16. Material purchased January 1978, Accession no. E78.1. Letters received February 1979, Accession no. E79.12. Material purchased December 1990, Accession nos. E90.126 and 127. Material purchased January 1991, Accession no. E91.4. Material purchased March 1993, Accession no. E93.14.
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The biographical/administrative history was compiled using the following material: (1)
Important finding aids generally are: the alphabetical Index to Manuscripts held at Edinburgh University Library, Special Collections and Archives, consisting of typed slips in sheaf binders and to which additions were made until 1987; and the Index to Accessions Since 1987.