The Auld collection of books in and about Esperanto contains nearly 5,000 monographs and a similar number of serials. It is the working library of the late William Auld (1924-2006), one of the world's leading writers in Esperanto, who was nominated three times for the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 1999, 2004 and 2006. Esperanto is the language created by LL (Ludwik) Zamenhof in the 1880s, which is now used by communities across the world as a neutral means of communication. Auld first encountered Esperanto as a young boy in Glasgow and taught himself the language. After wartime service in the Royal Air Force and studying English at Glasgow University, Auld qualified in 1956 as a teacher. In 1960, he took a post in a secondary school in Alloa, where he remained until retiring as depute rector. His most famous work in Esperanto was his poem 'La Infana Raso' of 1956. Throughout his life he edited numerous Esperanto magazines and journals and served as Vice-President of the World Esperanto Association from 1977 to 1980, President of the Academy of Esperanto from 1979 to 1983, and honorary president of the Esperanto PEN Centre.

The collection is an internationally significant resource for Esperanto studies, containing books printed in countries as diverse as Japan, Latvia, Albania and Vietnam. There are some extremely rare examples of early publications in Esperanto, starting from 1887; but the majority of the collection is modern publications, including scientific books, children's books and literary translations, which show the development of the language over the last century. There are also Esperanto translations of works by writers such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Walter Scott and Robert Burns, as well as original Esperanto fiction and poetry by Auld and other Scottish writers. A number of the books have provenance of other Scottish Esperanto libraries such as the Edinburgh Esperanto Society.

Organisation

The collection is not yet catalogued. Monographs can be ordered for use in the Special Collections Reading Room by using a list of the Auld collection books in subject order. The collection has been assigned the shelfmark 'Auld.'.

Acquisition

The collection was presented to the Library in 2000 by William Auld.

Related collections

Library has two volumes of a typescript catalogue of William Auld's library 'Katalogo de la biblioteko de William Auld' compiled by Auld between 1978 and 1995.

References

Overview of the Library's Auld Collection

Auld Collection list (PDF)