Young Art and Old Hector
First Edition:
YOUNG ART AND | OLD HECTOR | by | NEIL M. GUNN | [space] | FABER AND FABER LIMITED | 24 Russell Square | London
Collation:
[A] (8), B - I (8), No J, K - Q (8), 128 leaves.
p. [1] [ital] Young Art and Old Hector; p. [2] By the same author; p. [3] Title page; p. [4] [ital] Publisher's and Printer's notices: First published in MCMXLII; p. [5] For | THE WOMAN OF THE HOUSE; p. [6] blank; p. 7 Author's Note; p. [8] blank; p. 9 Contents; p. [10] blank, pp. 11 - 255 Text; p. [256] blank.
5" x 7 9/16". Bound in brown cloth, spine stamped in gold:
Young | Art | & | Old | Hector | Two horizontal lines | Neil M. | Gunn | [space] | Faber and | Faber
Contents:
1) The First Run of Grilse. #
2) The Knife, the Glass Ball, and the Penny. #
3) Machinery. #
4) Under an Old Gooseberry Bush. *
5) The First and Second Childhood. *
6) The New Jersey, the Fluke and the Whispering Reeds. *
7) Nowhere and Somewhere. *
8) The Thimble of the Fairy Woman.
9) Art Runs a Great Race. *
10) A Minor Operation.
11) Going and Coming.
12) What is Good Conduct?
13) Art's Wedding Present.
14) The Secret.
15) The World Beyond.
16) The Little Red Cow. *
17) To the River.
# Appeared in Chambers's Journal.
* Appeared in The Scots Magazine.
Other Editions:
G.W. Stewart | New York | 1944
Souvenir Press | London | 1976.
The chapter entitled "Art Runs a Great Race" appeared in: Storm and Precipice | Faber and Faber | London | 1st. October 1942 | pp. 39 - 52.
The chapter entitled "The Little Red Cow" appeared in: The Thistle and the Pen | E. Linklater, ed. | Nelson | London | 1950 | pp. 121 - 131.
The chapter entitled "Machinery" appeared as "The Birdbeast and the Twelve Puppies" in: Chambers's Journal | Edinburgh | September 1941 | pp. 529 - 532.
The chapter entitled "Art's Wedding Present" appeared in: Classic Scottish Short Stories | J.M.Reid, ed. | Oxford University Press | Oxford | 1989 | pp. 164 - 182.
An extract from "Art's Wedding Present", comprising part of p. 190, p. 191 and part of p. 192 appeared as "Freedom and Whisky" in: Scotland, An Anthology | D.Dunn, ed. | Fontana | London | 1992 | pp. 265 - 267.
Notes:
A delightful book concerning the friendship and exchange of knowledge between an old man and a young boy in a Highland crofting setting. Young Art and Old Hector were to be the main protagonists in the later, and perhaps more famous, "Green Isle of the Great Deep".
According to Professor F.R.Hart in his "A Brief Memoir" (Neil M. Gunn: The Man and the Writer | A.Scott and D.Gifford, eds. | William Blackwood | Edinburgh | 1973) Gunn was himself the star runner at the local games, so the chapter "Art Runs a Great Race", at least, is partially autobiographical.