As a literary celebration, it could be the creme de la creme.
A year long series of events to mark the life and work of one of Scotland's greatest writers, Dame Muriel Spark, is to include the re-release of all her novels, a new memoir, an international symposium, as well as a new set of funds for artists to celebrate her inspiration.
Organised by the National Library of Scotland and Creative Scotland, the year will see a re-publication of Spark's 22 novels, by Polygon, an imprint of Birlinn.
From December there will be the unveiling of Spark's archive at the National Library of Scotland (NLS), and the new year will see an international conference to investigate aspects of Spark's writing and legacy.
Scottish writers Ali Smith, Val McDermid, Janice Galloway, Kate Clanchy and Louise Welsh will reflect on Spark’s career in a new BBC Radio 3 series, also in 2018.
Muriel Spark, who lived from February 1918 to April 2006, was an Edinburgh-born poet, writer of fiction, criticism and literary biography and is best-known as the author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
The writing of Spark has never been out of print, and her other novels include The Driver’s Seat, The Girls of Slender Means and Momento Mori.
In the 1940s Spark decided to keep a record of her professional and personal activities, beginning an archive that is now one of the largest and most comprehensive held by the National Library of Scotland.
Her close friend Penelope Jardine said of her work: "Muriel's contribution to Scottish Letters is one of manifest originality, brevity of wit, with the musical composition and rhythms of a poet.
"Something unforgettable, sui generis."
The Spark novels will all be republished between November this year and September next year.
Each novel will be published with a series preface by editor Alan Taylor and an introduction by such writers or critics including Ali Smith, William Boyd, Alexander McCall Smith, Candia McWilliam, James Wood, Andrew O’Hagan, Zoë Strachan, Allan Massie, Ian Rankin and Richard Holloway, among others.
Taylor said: “Everyone knows that Muriel Spark was the author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which is undoubtedly one of the twentieth century’s great works of fiction.
"What too few people also know is that she wrote 21 other novels, all of which are infused with her trademark blend of fun and profundity, original thinking and peerless style."
Taylor, former associate editor at the Sunday Herald, is also to publish his own memoir of his long friendship with the writer.
Appointment in Arrezzo draws on a long friendship, with sources taken from notebooks from their first meeting, and the many letters they exchanged over the years, and will be published next month.
From December at the NLS, the International Style of Muriel Spark exhibition will feature personal artefacts not seen in public before.
The writer’s boxed archive covers the period from the 1940s until her death in 2006, taking up some 46 metres of shelving.
The early records of wartime poverty that chart the struggles of an unknown author are joined by scores of diaries, letters including those with literary names, world leaders and film stars, diaries, photographs, newspaper cuttings and school magazines all of which illuminate the inspirations behind Spark’s literary style, her love of fashion, and the significance of the places where she lived.
Colin McIlroy, Muriel Spark Project Curator, said: "Muriel Spark was a self-confessed hoarder. She kept everything from school magazines to shopping receipts, photographs, desk diaries and letters from some of the biggest names in 20th century literature. This is what makes her archive so fascinating."
Further Spark-related events are yet to be announced.
Jenny Niven, the chair of Muriel Spark 100, and head of literature at Creative Scotland, added: "The centenary of Dame Muriel Spark’s birth is both a landmark moment and an unparalleled opportunity to permanently influence the way in which this leading figure of Scotland’s cultural history features in the public imagination.
"There is so much to explore in Ms Spark’s work, from her incisive commentary, to her startling poetry, to her ability to effortlessly weave folk tradition with biting satire.
"It’s a particularly interesting time too to consider her legacy, as a Scottish writer who was fiercely international in her approach and who broke through a great many barriers in her career."
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