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Alexander Anderson

1845 - 1909

Alexander Anderson, 'Surfaceman'
POEMS BIBLIOGRAPHY

Born in Kirkconnel in 1845, in his late teens Alexander Anderson became a surfaceman, or layer of rails, on the Glasgow and South-Western Railway, the job from which he would take his moniker when he would later become a poet. Through assiduous study in his spare time, he educated himself in several languages, and read widely in great literature, and in 1880 obtained the post of assistant librarian at the University of Edinburgh, eventually becoming the Chief Librarian.
In the 1860s Anderson began to have poems published in the The People’s Journal and other magazines, and brought out a first collection, ‘A Song of Labour and other poems‘ in 1873, which was followed by three further collections, and Later Poems published posthumously in 1912.
Anderson died in 1909 and is buried in Kirkconnel. In 1912 a memorial was erected on the nearby Kirkbrae.

Read the poems

  • Cuddle Doon
  • Toshie Norrie
  • Langsyne, When Life was Bonnie
  • Jenny Wi’ the Airn Teeth

Selected Bibliography

  • A Song of Labour, and other poems, Dundee, 1873.
  • The Two Angels, and other poems, London, 1875.
  • Songs of the Rail, London, 1878.
  • Ballads and Sonnets, London, 1879.
  • Later Poems of Alexander Anderson, “Surfaceman”, Glasgow, 1912.

From the Library Catalogue

Publications about Alexander Anderson
Publications by Alexander Anderson

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