A charity set up to promote the work of Perth poet William Soutar has been gifted a four-figure sum to produce a new book featuring all of his poems.
Perth ’s Common Good Fund committee agreed to award the Friends of William Soutar Society almost £2000 to help them get the book published during a virtual meeting held last week.
A report presented to the committee explained: “The Friends of William Soutar Society intend to publish ‘The Complete Works of William Soutar (Poetry)’.
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“The book will include all Soutar’s published and unpublished poems, alongside a modern assessment by a leading Scottish academic.
“The total cost of the project is £13,470.95, the group have secured £9401.45 and are applying for a grant of £3569.50.
“The costs include transport and academic research costs (£5725), printing 500 copies of the book (£3046) [and] other publication costs such as editing, styling, graphics and proof reading (£3185.95).
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“Any income generated by the book will be used to print more copies and if sales allow, the revenue would be put towards another book on William Soutar’s prose collection.”
Perth City Centre councillor Andrew Parrott moved a motion proposing to gift the group £1800 and this was supported by nine other councillors who participated in last Monday’s meeting.
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Perth City South councillor Willie Wilson went on to ask if the society could be persuaded to launch the book at William Soutar’s former home in Wilson Street in Perth which is now a museum.
He remarked: “It’s in the Perth South ward [and] I think it’s an underused asset. It would be good to have an open day of some sort associated with the book launch if that were feasible.”
Cllr Parrott, who convened last Monday’s meeting, said he would discuss Cllr Wilson’s idea with Culture Perth and Kinross in due course.
