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I think that authors’ ghosts creep back‍‍
Nightly to haunt the sleeping shelves‍‍
And find the books they wrote.‍‍
Those authors put final, semi-final touches,‍‍
Sometimes whole paragraphs.‍‍
Whole pages are added, re-written, revised…

—Muriel Spark, “Authors’ Ghosts”
published in COMPLETE POEMS (Carcanet, 2015)

18/18

#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters #poem #poetry

Authors’ Ghosts
Muriel Spark

I think that authors’ ghosts creep back‍‍
Nightly to haunt the sleeping shelves‍‍
And find the books they wrote.‍‍
Those authors put final, semi-final touches,‍‍
Sometimes whole paragraphs.‍‍

Whole pages are added, re-written, revised,‍‍
So deeply by night those authors employ‍‍
Themselves with those old books of theirs.‍‍

How otherwise‍‍
Explain the fact that maybe after years‍‍
Have passed, the reader‍‍
Picks up the book – But was it like that?‍‍
I don’t remember this . . . Where‍‍
Did this ending come from?‍‍
I recall quite another.‍‍

Oh yes, it has been tampered with‍‍
No doubt about it –‍‍
The author’s very touch is here, there and there,‍‍
Where it wasn’t before, and‍‍
What’s more, something’s missing –‍‍
I could have sworn . . . — Authors’ Ghosts Muriel Spark I think that authors’ ghosts creep back‍‍ Nightly to haunt the sleeping shelves‍‍ And find the books they wrote.‍‍ Those authors put final, semi-final touches,‍‍ Sometimes whole paragraphs.‍‍ Whole pages are added, re-written, revised,‍‍ So deeply by night those authors employ‍‍ Themselves with those old books of theirs.‍‍ How otherwise‍‍ Explain the fact that maybe after years‍‍ Have passed, the reader‍‍ Picks up the book – But was it like that?‍‍ I don’t remember this . . . Where‍‍ Did this ending come from?‍‍ I recall quite another.‍‍ Oh yes, it has been tampered with‍‍ No doubt about it –‍‍ The author’s very touch is here, there and there,‍‍ Where it wasn’t before, and‍‍ What’s more, something’s missing –‍‍ I could have sworn . . .

Assoc for Scottish Literature

@scotlit@mastodon.scot · 5 days ago

THE CROOKED DIVIDEND
Essays on Muriel Spark
ed. Gerard Carruthers & Helen Stoddart

Muriel Spark in British culture; the influence of Scottish literary traditions on her work; how she explores gender, religion, politics; & more

Also online via Project MUSE

@litstudies

17/18

https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/occasional_papers/the-crooked-dividend/

#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters

Association for Scottish Literature

Occasional Papers series no. 24

Edited by Gerard Carruthers and Helen Stoddart Published in: Paperback By: Scottish Literature International, 2022 Price: £19.95 / €24.95 / $27.95 ISBN 978-1-908980-33-5 Order from Hive.co.

Assoc for Scottish Literature

@scotlit@mastodon.scot replied · 5 days ago

—Muriel Spark, “Authors’ Ghosts”
published in COMPLETE POEMS (Carcanet, 2015)

18/18

#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters #poem #poetry

Assoc for Scottish Literature

@scotlit@mastodon.scot · 5 days ago

AFTERWORDS: Muriel Spark
“One’s prime is elusive…”

—On BBC Sounds: writers Ian Rankin & Zoë Strachan discuss Muriel Spark’s life & work with National Library of Scotland curator Colin McIlroy, & Spark’s friend & memoirist, Alan Taylor

16/18

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0018238

#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters

BBC

BBC Radio 3 - Sunday Feature, Afterwords: Muriel Spark

Reflections on the work of Muriel Spark, through archive of the author and new interviews.

Assoc for Scottish Literature

@scotlit@mastodon.scot replied · 5 days ago

THE CROOKED DIVIDEND
Essays on Muriel Spark
ed. Gerard Carruthers & Helen Stoddart

Muriel Spark in British culture; the influence of Scottish literary traditions on her work; how she explores gender, religion, politics; & more

Also online via Project MUSE

@litstudies

17/18

https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/occasional_papers/the-crooked-dividend/

#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters

Association for Scottish Literature

Occasional Papers series no. 24

Edited by Gerard Carruthers and Helen Stoddart Published in: Paperback By: Scottish Literature International, 2022 Price: £19.95 / €24.95 / $27.95 ISBN 978-1-908980-33-5 Order from Hive.co.

Assoc for Scottish Literature

@scotlit@mastodon.scot · 5 days ago

“knowing the challenges Spark overcame makes me doubly grateful for her”

Writing for the Royal Literary Fund, Lauren J. Joseph reflects on a quality many writers have to develop – the “sheer bloody-mindedness” Spark had in spades

15/18

https://www.rlf.org.uk/posts/the-relentless-brilliance-of-muriel-spark/

#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters #writing

Royal Literary Fund

The relentless brilliance of Muriel Spark

Lauren J. Joseph on Muriel Spark, who applied to the RLF for a grant in 1950, seven years before the publication of her first novel.

Assoc for Scottish Literature

@scotlit@mastodon.scot replied · 5 days ago

AFTERWORDS: Muriel Spark
“One’s prime is elusive…”

—On BBC Sounds: writers Ian Rankin & Zoë Strachan discuss Muriel Spark’s life & work with National Library of Scotland curator Colin McIlroy, & Spark’s friend & memoirist, Alan Taylor

16/18

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0018238

#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters

BBC

BBC Radio 3 - Sunday Feature, Afterwords: Muriel Spark

Reflections on the work of Muriel Spark, through archive of the author and new interviews.

Assoc for Scottish Literature

@scotlit@mastodon.scot · 5 days ago

“It is a good thing to go to Paris for a few days if you have had a lot of trouble, and that is my advice to everyone except Parisians.”

—extracts from A GOOD COMB, by Muriel Spark, ed. Penelope Jardine – via @literaryhub

14/18

https://lithub.com/a-few-words-of-indispensible-advice-from-muriel-spark/

#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters #advice #Paris

Assoc for Scottish Literature

@scotlit@mastodon.scot replied · 5 days ago

“knowing the challenges Spark overcame makes me doubly grateful for her”

Writing for the Royal Literary Fund, Lauren J. Joseph reflects on a quality many writers have to develop – the “sheer bloody-mindedness” Spark had in spades

15/18

https://www.rlf.org.uk/posts/the-relentless-brilliance-of-muriel-spark/

#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters #writing

Royal Literary Fund

The relentless brilliance of Muriel Spark

Lauren J. Joseph on Muriel Spark, who applied to the RLF for a grant in 1950, seven years before the publication of her first novel.

Assoc for Scottish Literature

@scotlit@mastodon.scot · 5 days ago

“Somehow things happened, odd things, when Muriel was around,” recalled her friend Shirley Hazzard. “Everything that happened to Muriel,” according to … Barbara Epler, “had been foreseen”, usually in her books themselves.

—The unnerving vision of Muriel Spark

13/18

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jun/15/odd-things-happened-when-she-was-around-novelist-muriel-spark

#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters