BAWCUTT, Priscilla (June) 1931-

PERSONAL: Born June 3, 1931, in Malton, England; daughter of Thomas William (in local government) and Winifred Mary (Humfrey) Preston; married Nigel William Bawcutt (a university teacher), May 26, 1962; children: Nicholas David. Education: University of London, B.A. (first class honors), M.A., 1954.

ADDRESSES: Home—21 Dowsefield Lane, Liverpool L18 3J9, England.

CAREER: Independent scholar and writer. Honorary professor at University of Liverpool.

AWARDS, HONORS: Scottish Research Book of the Year, Saltire Society.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) The Shorter Poems of Gavin Douglas, Scottish Text Society (East Lothian, Scotland), 1967.

Gavin Douglas: A Critical Study, University of Edinburgh Press (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1974.

(Editor, with Felicity Riddy) Longer Scottish Poems, Scottish Academic Press (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1987.

Dunbar the Makar, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1992.

(Editor, with Riddy) Selected Poems of Henryson andDunbar, Scottish Academic Press (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1992.

(Editor) The Poems of William Dunbar (two volumes), Association for Scottish Literary Studies (Glasgow, Scotland), 1998.

Contributor to Discovering Scottish Writers, Scottish Library Association, 1997. Contributor to various periodicals, including Notes and Queries.

SIDELIGHTS: Priscilla Bawcutt has devoted much of her career to the study of Scottish poets from the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Most notable among these are Gavin Douglas and William Dunbar, about whom she has written or edited two books each. Another volume is devoted to the work of both Dunbar and a third Scottish poet of a generation slightly earlier than his and Douglas's, Robert Henryson or Henderson.

Bawcutt's critical editions of these poets' works have been widely praised. The work was not easy; for some of the authors, particularly Dunbar, no authoritative, original manuscripts of their poems exist, so Bawcutt had to choose between competing late versions. R. James Goldstein in Medium Aevum, praising Bawcutt's "unrivalled knowledge of Middle Scots language and literature," maintained that with The Poems of William Dunbar, Bawcutt "has risen to this formidable editorial challenge, producing what will undoubtedly serve as the standard edition for years to come." Goldstein also praised Bawcutt's "copious commentary and glossary," which comprised the second volume of this two-volume work.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Mapstone, Sally, editor, William Dunbar, "The NobillPoyet": Essays in Honour of Priscilla Bawcutt, Tuckwell Press (East Linton, Scotland), 2001.

Reid, Alan, and Brian D. Osborne, editors, Discovering Scottish Writers, Scottish Library Association (Hamilton, Scotland), 1997.

PERIODICALS

London Review of Books, May 24, 2001, Sally Mapstone, "Dunbar's Disappearance," pp. 27-29.

Medium Aevum, October, 2001, R. James Goldstein, review of The Poems of William Dunbar, pp. 141-2.

Modern Philology, February, 1995, review of Dunbar the Makar, p. 366.

Notes and Queries, December, 2000, A. S. G. Edwards, review of The Poems of William Dunbar, pp. 497-9.

Review of English Studies, November, 1994, review of Dunbar the Makar, p. 553; August, 2001, Keely Fisher, review of The Poems of William Dunbar, p. 435.

Speculum, July, 1994, review of Dunbar the Makar, p. 739.

Times Literary Supplement, May 6-12, 1988, p. 499; August 13, 1999, Patrick Crotty, "Long in Mind My Work. . . ," pp. 3-4.