Prosperous Origins: 1980s

The founding of the Society's First Book of the Year Award was arguably the most significant, and certainly the most longstanding, development made possible by the prosperity the Society was experiencing through sponsors in the late 1980s. It was the introduction of the Scotsman as sponsor of the Book of the Year Award in 1988, following the cessation of Royal Bank of Scotland as sponsor in 1987, which brought the First Book of the Year Award into existence. Writing to the Book of the Year Award judging panel in February 1988 to inform them of the introduction of a new sponsor, Paul Henderson Scott also noted that the Scotsman had ‘offered to sponsor the Saltire Award for the Scottish Book of the Year from the current year onwards’ and wished to sponsor a new award for ‘the Scottish New Writer of the Year for the author of the best first published book’, which would have a prize purse of £1,000. Literary Award judge Isobel Murray swiftly replied to Scott's letter to say that ‘a separate award for the Scottish New Writer is a splendid development’ and assured Scott she would keep this news confidential until its public announcement. The nomination and judging process for the new award would be similar to that of the Book of the Year Award, with eligibility for the First Book of the Year Award determined by whether an author was Scottish-born, living in Scotland, of Scottish descent or that their book dealt ‘with the work or life of a Scot or with a Scottish problem, event or situation’. Nominations would be invited from the literary editors of newspapers, literary magazines and journals, and judged by the Literary Awards panel, which in 1988 included Angus Calder, Ian Campbell, Douglas Gifford, Isobel Murray, Alan Taylor and Derick Thomson. Scott remained as chair of the panel. While the suggestion of the creation of an award for ‘the best first published book’ was enthusiastically welcomed by the judging panel, it is unclear as to exactly where the idea came from. There was mention of the founding of an award for ‘first novels’ noted in the Society's 1937 annual report, but this suggestion was swiftly dismissed and seemingly forgotten by the Society over the subsequent fifty years.