The Drinking Well
First Edition:
THE | DRINKING WELL | by | NEIL M. GUNN | [space] | FABER AND FABER LTD | 24 Russell Square | London
Collation:
[A] (8), B - I (16), No J, K - P (16), 232 leaves.
p. [1] THE DRINKING WELL; p. [2] By the same author; p. [3] Title page; p. [4] [ital] Publisher's and Printer's notices: First published in MCMXLVI; p. [5] Contents; p. [6] To My | OLD FRIEND IAN | and the sheep farm on the Grampians, | not forgetting the little black diary; p. [7] PART 1 | AT HOME; p. [8] blank; pp. 9 - 464 Text.
5" x 7 1/2". Bound in green cloth, spine stamped in Gold: THE | DRINKING | WELL | BY | NEIL M. | GUNN | [space] | FABER
Other Editions:
G.W. Stewart | New York | 1947
Souvenir Press | London | 1978
An extract entitled " A Dream of Edinburgh", comprising chapter fifteen of part two of the novel (with slight alterations) had appeared in: The Scots Magazine | Dundee | August 1946 | pp. 343 - 348.
The novel was dramatised for radio and broadcast 3rd. December 1956.
An extract entitled "Poaching", comprising part of p. 57, pp. 58 - 59 and part of p. 60 appeared in: Scotland: An Anthology | Maurice Lindsay, ed. | Robert Hale | November 1974 | pp. 374 - 377.
An extract comprising part of p. 187 appeared in: Glimpses of Gunn | Ann Yule and Alan Haldane | Neil M. Gunn Memorial Trust | Dingwall | 1990 | p. 20.
Birlinn | Edinburgh | 2006
Notes:
Whilst the work bears the imprint 1946, according to Faber, it was not published until 21st. February 1947. Some copies of the first edition are known to have been mis-bound with two "M" sections and no "N" section. Iain Cattenach, the hero, first appeared in "The Man Who Came Back ( Study for a one-act play)" in: The Scots Magazine | Dundee | March 1928 | pp. 419 - 429.
The play for which the above was a study was: Back Home | W. Wilson | Glasgow | 1932. The story explores, in much greater detail, the ideas first expressed in the above works, and shows effectively the contrasts between urban and rural life. The rural setting is a large sheep farm between Newtonmore and Dalwhinnie in the Grampians which, as can be seen from the dedication, was well known to Gunn.