Two years ago this month we embarked upon the revival of James Leatham's work. The Commemorative edition of The Gateway was published in time for the re-launch of The Deveron Press on what would have been James Leatham's 150th birthday on December 19th 2015. The launch event was held in the Municipal Buildings, Turriff - in the very room Leatham served as Provost. Like Leatham's reputation, it had fallen into a parlous state. We have played our part in restoring both place and reputation. The Municipal Buildings is now a community owned Museum and Heritage Hub, managed by the Turriff and District Heritage Society. The Deveron Press has also published 'The Centenary Collection' of 10 Leatham related works including first publication of Leatham's unfinished autobiography as well as becoming a voice for contemporary North East and Scots writers. And every month we have brought you a selection of Leatham (and other writers) works in the New Gateway, free online. Leatham's Gateway ran for 361 editions over 30 volumes. We knew we could never compete with this. Our goal has been, and remains, to make Leatham's work as available as possible as widely as possible. On this, the second anniversary of the 'relaunch' we have taken the decision that we will bring out a total of 30 editions of the New Gateway. This will take us to June next year. (Volume 3) It's a small tribute to Leatham's prolific masterwork, but hopefully it has whetted the appetite of a few to read further and deeper. We have made hundreds of public domain articles available free on the internet and they will remain here. We will also list the complete index of all Gateway articles from all 361 editions of the magazine so that interested people can seek them down - at present complete sets are held at Special Collections, Aberdeen University Library, British Library and incomplete but extensive holdings at Aberdeenshire Library HQ in Old Meldrum. We will then focus on bringing 'compilations' of some of Leatham's political and cultural works together for publication as well as continuing our commitment to local and Scots contemporary writers - keeping the 'radical' view alive well into the future. So - there's another 6 editions to go... we hope you will enjoy them. And for our publications, please go to the Leatham Centenary Collection at www.unco.scot and the Contemporary unco authors section. Rab Christie Comments are closed.
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