19th Century Variations of the Self: The Forgotten Scottish Scrapman
Academic Level at Time of Presentation
Graduate
Major
English Literature
Minor
Humanities
List all Project Mentors & Advisor(s)
Dr. Kevin Binfield
Presentation Format
Oral Presentation
Abstract/Description
This essay examines journalist and editor, John M’Diarmid’s Scrap Book across seven nineteenth-century editions, to illuminate his editorial practices and how he shaped the literary culture in the nineteenth century Dumfries, Scotland. M’Diarmid became a central figure to journalism and even today a very minimal amount of scholarship about his contribution toward the Dumfries Courier and other newspaper outlets are available. When researching information on the Scrap Book’s seven editions, the entire collection resulted in zero scholarship; and M’Diarmid’s commitment to the literary community is forgotten. The editor advertises his second edition by explaining his commitment toward the reader and author space; and declaring that he will perfect the Scrap Book in their name. The texts include numerous macro-level textual differences, such as poetry insertions, deletions, genre reclassifications between the earlier editions; but the later ones result in more micro-variants, such as punctuation, word choice and sentence structures. Drawing research on M’Diarmid became more challenging as I lacked access to the reviews that let lead him to his edits; until I discovered John M’Diarmid’s textual name variants: McDiarmid, MacDearmid, MacDiarmid, etc., with one thing in common: the Dumfries and Galloway Courier. The Scrap Book became his intentional space for editorial work and participation in a literary world, culture and network. This essay’s analysis demonstrates M’Diarmid’s commitment to his work; and the issue with manuscript translations losing small but meaningful authors to the name variations created from inaccurate transcription, AI, and computer digitization recognition software. May we one day resurrect those who committed their lives to the literary world through their work.
Spring Scholars Week 2026
English and Philosophy Panel
19th Century Variations of the Self: The Forgotten Scottish Scrapman
This essay examines journalist and editor, John M’Diarmid’s Scrap Book across seven nineteenth-century editions, to illuminate his editorial practices and how he shaped the literary culture in the nineteenth century Dumfries, Scotland. M’Diarmid became a central figure to journalism and even today a very minimal amount of scholarship about his contribution toward the Dumfries Courier and other newspaper outlets are available. When researching information on the Scrap Book’s seven editions, the entire collection resulted in zero scholarship; and M’Diarmid’s commitment to the literary community is forgotten. The editor advertises his second edition by explaining his commitment toward the reader and author space; and declaring that he will perfect the Scrap Book in their name. The texts include numerous macro-level textual differences, such as poetry insertions, deletions, genre reclassifications between the earlier editions; but the later ones result in more micro-variants, such as punctuation, word choice and sentence structures. Drawing research on M’Diarmid became more challenging as I lacked access to the reviews that let lead him to his edits; until I discovered John M’Diarmid’s textual name variants: McDiarmid, MacDearmid, MacDiarmid, etc., with one thing in common: the Dumfries and Galloway Courier. The Scrap Book became his intentional space for editorial work and participation in a literary world, culture and network. This essay’s analysis demonstrates M’Diarmid’s commitment to his work; and the issue with manuscript translations losing small but meaningful authors to the name variations created from inaccurate transcription, AI, and computer digitization recognition software. May we one day resurrect those who committed their lives to the literary world through their work.