by Billy Kay
IN NOVEMBER 2019 the St Andrew’s Society of the State of New York conferred their Mark Twain Award on me at their 263rd Annual Banquet. As you can see, it was a splendid occasion. At a previous banquet in 1901, their president Andrew Carnegie persuaded his friend Mark Twain to address the Society – hence the name of the award which they now give annually to someone they feel has promoted Scotland well. It was quite an honour to follow in the footsteps of Twain, but I was delighted to do so as I had studied him as part of my American Literature studies at Edinburgh University in the early 1970s. Through Twain, and William Faulkner, I became fascinated by the American South and its deep connections with Scotland and wrote about it extensively in the chapter called The Scotch South in my book The Scottish World. Here is a flavour of what I wrote.
Charleston, South Carolina April 10, 1994.