Daylight Rabbery: The Story of ‘Antique Smith’s’ Robert Burns Forgeries
An Audio Play written by Professor Gerry Carruthers & George Smith
Gerry Carruthers, George Smith and Jonathan Henderson perform Daylight Rabbery.
In the early 1890s, Edinburgh and the press are alive with gossip that the surfeit of poems and songs suddenly appearing in Burns’ holograph speak of murky goings-on in the world of the Scottish capital’s book-sellers and collectors. A scandal develops that stretches all the way to New York and down to the present day. At its centre is the unassuming young office clerk, Smith.
Following a series of live performances, we are delighted to make available this audio play, which uses dramatization, poetic recital and song-performance to recount the forgeries, trial and eventual imprisonment of Alexander Howland (‘Antique’) Smith for manufacturing numerous manuscripts purporting to be by Robert Burns.