Name/TitleLight of the Mind
MakerRansford, Tessa
Maker RoleAuthor
About this objectSlim hardback book with bright green covers titled 'Light of the Mind: Selected Poems by Tessa Ransford'. The book is divided into three sections as follows:
- Part One: Dulce Lumen
- Part Two: Triste Lumen
- Part Three: Sauve Lumen Luminum
Medium and MaterialsOrganic, board and paper
MeasurementsH: 223 x W: 153 x D: 10 mm
Date Made1980
Period1980s
Place MadeScotland, Edinburgh
Place NotesThe Ramsay Head Press, 36 North Castle Street, Edinburgh EH2 3BN
PublisherThe Ramsay Head Press
Publication Date1980
Publication PlaceScotland, Edinburgh
Subject and Association Descriptionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tessa_Ransford:
Teresa Mary ("Tessa") Ransford OBE (8 July 1938 – 2 September 2015) was a poet, activist and the founding director of the Scottish Poetry Library.
Teresa Ransford was born in Mumbai, India on 8 July 1938. Her mother was Lady Torfrida Ransford and her father was Sir Alister Ransford, Master of the Mint of Mumbai.[2] The family moved back to the United Kingdom in 1944, finally moving to Scotland in 1948 when her father took up the position of bursar at the Loretto School in Musselburgh. Ransford was educated and boarded at St Leonard’s School in St Andrews. She was not happy and turned to books and poetry for consolation. She went on to study German and Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. In 1959, she married Iain Kay Stiven, a minister of the Church of Scotland and the pair lived in Pakistan until 1968 with their four children. During the 1970s, Ransford started writing and publishing poems and founded the School of Poets in 1981 as a place for poets to gather on a monthly basis to support one another. Ransford produced over fifteen volumes of poetry during her lifetime.
The Scottish Poetry Library had 300 books when she started it in 1984. By the time she died, it had over 30,000. She was awarded the Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2000 for services to the Scottish Poetry Library and was President of Scottish PEN from 2003 to 2006. Ransford was diagnosed with cancer in 2015 and died in Edinburgh on 2 September that year.
Subject and Association Keywordspoetry & verse
Subject and Association Keywordswomen's writing & literature
Named CollectionGlasgow Women's Library
Object TypeBook
ISBN/ISSN0 902859 73 0
Object numberGWL-2025-135-1
Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved