Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect
Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, commonly known as the Kilmarnock Edition, is a collection of poetry by Robert Burns, first printed and issued by John Wilson of Kilmarnock on 31 July 1786. It was the first published edition of Burns' work. It cost 3 shillings and 612 copies were printed. The volume was dedicated to Gavin Hamilton. The Kilmarnock volume contained, besides satire, a number of poems like "Halloween" (written in 1785), "The Twa Dogs" and "The Cotter's Saturday Night", which are vividly descriptive of the Scots peasant life with which he  was most familiar; and a group like "Puir Mailie" and "To a Mouse", which, in the tenderness of their treatment of animals, revealed one of the most attractive sides of Burns' personality. Six of the original manuscript versions of the poems from the book are in the possession of the Irvine Burns Club. In 1787 Burns travelled to Edinburgh with the intention of organizing a second edition and, after being introduced to publisher William Creech and printer William Smellie, 3,000 copies of the "Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect" (Edinburgh Edition) were published in April 1787. Facsimiles. As stated, only  612 copies of the Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect were printed by John Wilson in 1786 and the publisher James McKie saw that most collectors of Robert Burns's works would be unable to acquire a copy and to satisfy this demand and satisfy his own interests as an admirer of Burns he produced the first facsimile edition for collectors in 1867 in a print run of 600 copies. These facsimiles were in original style boards, signed by James McKie. A miniature facsimile issued in a protective case with a magnifying glass in the 1890s and was of benefit  to troops in the trenches in World War I due to its protective case and convenient size. Contents. Source: