It's not at all surprising that Edinburgh should have among its many museums and galleries one dedicated to writers. After all, in 2004 it became the first Unesco City of Literature; it is famous for its book festival and also as the home of many writers.
The only surprising fact is that of all of the writers who have lived or worked in Edinburgh only three are featured in the Writers' Museum. But all becomes clear when you visit the museum, set just off the approach to the castle in Lady Stair's Close.
'Close' in the Scottish vernacular means a narrow passage or courtyard off a street. Down such a close stands Lady Stair's House, the turreted 17th-century building that houses the museum.
Space is of a premium here and so the museum has had to concentrate on the city's most famous literary sons: Robert Louis Stevenson, Walter Scott and Robert Burns. The other reason for the focus is the history of the museum and the collection.
In 1907 the house was under threat of demolition. Instead, the owner, the Earl of Rosebery, renovated it and donated it to the city; it became Edinburgh's first municipal museum. The collection contained some Burns and Scott artefacts but mainly concentrated on social and city history.
The focus on writers began after the second world war, with the Stevenson collection arriving in 1962. The collection had the unwieldy name of the Lady Stair's House Museum until it became the Writers' Museum in 1993.
Space restrictions aside, the other good reason for concentrating on these three writers is that there is much less ephemera surrounding contemporary authors. Visitors might be interested to see the typewriter that created a first manuscript but less so a PC and a floppy disc.
Elaine Greig, the curator of the museum, says it is difficult for museums to display and collect modern writers and that anyway 'writers are remembered for the words, not things or objects'. Despite this the museum does collect other writers and uses its temporary exhibition space to highlight their work.
Next year the museum celebrates its centenary. Although it can't expand physically, there are aspirations to spread the remit and reach of the museum into the courtyard outside.
Greig is hopeful that they will be able to use the space for outdoor events, readings and talks, but first they have to consult with their neighbours and conduct a feasibility study. The courtyard would have to be evened off - like everything else in the city, it slopes.
The museum is spread over three floors and although the labyrinthine layout creates its own challenges, it does provide discrete areas so that each of the three writers has his own space.
In the three small rooms that hold the Burns collection the problem is not finding artefacts to put on display but proving their authenticity and choosing which ones best tell Burns's story. There are objects said to have been worn by Burns and even a half-eaten bannock allegedly baked by Mrs Burns (sadly, this is not on display).
Highlights include a cast of Burns's skull taken when the body of his wife was interred beside his remains in the Burns Mausoleum; a receipt for the erection of a headstone on the unmarked grave of the poet Robert Fergusson, one of Burns's main inspirations; and four links of a surveying chain, used by Burns while working as an excise officer in Dumfries. Each object tells many stories, not just about Burns, but also the passionate response he inspired.
The story of Walter Scott is told on the main floor of the museum. The set-piece room display is uninspiring (poor mannequins in very bad wigs), but there are some interesting objects including the woodworm-ravaged and headless rocking horse which was found in the attic of the family house - probably Scott's, since one of its footrests is higher than the other (he had polio as a child).
The real highlight of the museum, though, is to be found in the basement where Robert Louis Stevenson's life is chronicled. And it is not the riding crop, the first edition or even the portrait of him by John Singer Sargent, which Stevenson loved but thought 'too eccentric to be exhibited'; it is the photographs taken by Stevenson while living in Samoa. They provide a fascinating insight into his life as well as being important social history and ethnographic documents in their own right.
There's no shortage of contemporary writers in Edinburgh but at the moment there is little room for them at the Writers' Museum. The temporary exhibition space is tiny and there is very little space for indoor public events.
The museum attracts 50,000 visitors a year already and the city of literature status combined with 250th anniversary of Burns's birth in 2009 are bound to swell that figure. Notwithstanding the lovely setting and the plans for the courtyard, the Writers' Museum really could do with a little more space to tell the whole, unexpurgated story.
The only surprising fact is that of all of the writers who have lived or worked in Edinburgh only three are featured in the Writers' Museum. But all becomes clear when you visit the museum, set just off the approach to the castle in Lady Stair's Close.
'Close' in the Scottish vernacular means a narrow passage or courtyard off a street. Down such a close stands Lady Stair's House, the turreted 17th-century building that houses the museum.
Space is of a premium here and so the museum has had to concentrate on the city's most famous literary sons: Robert Louis Stevenson, Walter Scott and Robert Burns. The other reason for the focus is the history of the museum and the collection.
In 1907 the house was under threat of demolition. Instead, the owner, the Earl of Rosebery, renovated it and donated it to the city; it became Edinburgh's first municipal museum. The collection contained some Burns and Scott artefacts but mainly concentrated on social and city history.
The focus on writers began after the second world war, with the Stevenson collection arriving in 1962. The collection had the unwieldy name of the Lady Stair's House Museum until it became the Writers' Museum in 1993.
Space restrictions aside, the other good reason for concentrating on these three writers is that there is much less ephemera surrounding contemporary authors. Visitors might be interested to see the typewriter that created a first manuscript but less so a PC and a floppy disc.
Elaine Greig, the curator of the museum, says it is difficult for museums to display and collect modern writers and that anyway 'writers are remembered for the words, not things or objects'. Despite this the museum does collect other writers and uses its temporary exhibition space to highlight their work.
Next year the museum celebrates its centenary. Although it can't expand physically, there are aspirations to spread the remit and reach of the museum into the courtyard outside.
Greig is hopeful that they will be able to use the space for outdoor events, readings and talks, but first they have to consult with their neighbours and conduct a feasibility study. The courtyard would have to be evened off - like everything else in the city, it slopes.
The museum is spread over three floors and although the labyrinthine layout creates its own challenges, it does provide discrete areas so that each of the three writers has his own space.
In the three small rooms that hold the Burns collection the problem is not finding artefacts to put on display but proving their authenticity and choosing which ones best tell Burns's story. There are objects said to have been worn by Burns and even a half-eaten bannock allegedly baked by Mrs Burns (sadly, this is not on display).
Highlights include a cast of Burns's skull taken when the body of his wife was interred beside his remains in the Burns Mausoleum; a receipt for the erection of a headstone on the unmarked grave of the poet Robert Fergusson, one of Burns's main inspirations; and four links of a surveying chain, used by Burns while working as an excise officer in Dumfries. Each object tells many stories, not just about Burns, but also the passionate response he inspired.
The story of Walter Scott is told on the main floor of the museum. The set-piece room display is uninspiring (poor mannequins in very bad wigs), but there are some interesting objects including the woodworm-ravaged and headless rocking horse which was found in the attic of the family house - probably Scott's, since one of its footrests is higher than the other (he had polio as a child).
The real highlight of the museum, though, is to be found in the basement where Robert Louis Stevenson's life is chronicled. And it is not the riding crop, the first edition or even the portrait of him by John Singer Sargent, which Stevenson loved but thought 'too eccentric to be exhibited'; it is the photographs taken by Stevenson while living in Samoa. They provide a fascinating insight into his life as well as being important social history and ethnographic documents in their own right.
There's no shortage of contemporary writers in Edinburgh but at the moment there is little room for them at the Writers' Museum. The temporary exhibition space is tiny and there is very little space for indoor public events.
The museum attracts 50,000 visitors a year already and the city of literature status combined with 250th anniversary of Burns's birth in 2009 are bound to swell that figure. Notwithstanding the lovely setting and the plans for the courtyard, the Writers' Museum really could do with a little more space to tell the whole, unexpurgated story.
