This is the first American edition of the novel originally published by Canongate Publishing in England in 1981. The visionary drawings reproduced in this book were made by Gray. Andrew Crumey WEB 1999 wrote the following. "Alasdair Gray was born on 28 December 1934 in Glasgow, and trained as a painter at the Glasgow School Of Art. He worked as an art teacher, muralist and theatrical scene painter (experiences which are reflected in novels such as "Lanark" and "1982, Janine"), and his illustrations for his own books (as well as his bold use of typography) form a crucial part of their unique appeal. In the early seventies, Gray attended an informal writers' group run by Philip Hobsbaum, along with James Kelman, Tom Leonard, Liz Lochhead, Agnes Owens and others. Work would be photocopied and distributed in advance for the group to discuss and criticise. Gray had already been working on "Lanark" since the fifties, and found Kelman's advice particularly helpful. The novel was finished in 1976, but not published until 1981, by Edinburgh-based publisher Canongate. Described by Anthony Burgess (only a wee bit hyperbolically) as the greatest contribution to Scottish literature since Walter Scott, "Lanark: A Life In 4 Books" (1981) is a modern classic, and contains all the elements which make Gray's intricate, eccentric style so memorable. "1982, Janine" (1984), the drunken memories and fantasies of a sad and lonely electrician, is equally compelling, but perhaps Gray's most assured work is the Whitbread Award-winning "Poor Things" (1992), a historical pastiche telling the story of a female Frankenstein's monster in Glasgow, its clever unfolding of found manuscripts and appendices displaying an ingenuity worthy of Nabokov. Gray's work sits firmly in the Scottish literary tradition. The realistic evocation of troubled childhood in "Lanark" can be compared with the work of George Douglas Brown, while Gray's incorporation of fantasy is reminiscent of Hogg and Stevenson, and his linguistic extravagance calls to mind Urquhart or Carlyle. He represents an outward-looking tendency in recent Scottish fiction, drawing freely on European and world literature (see, for instance the list of "implags" in "Lanark"), which has been influential on many younger writers. AC Lanark (1981); Unlikely Stories, Mostly (1983); 1982, Janine (1984); Lean Tales, with Agnes Owens and James Kelman (1985); Fall of Kelvin Walker (1985); Five Scottish Artists (1986); Old Negatives (1989); McGrotty and Ludmilla (1990); Something Leather (1990); Why Scots Should Rule Scotland (1992); Poor Things (1992); Ten Tales Tall and True (1993); A History Maker(1996). Glasgow Urban Writing and Post-Modernism: A Study of Alasdair Gray's Fiction (B. Witschi, Frankfurt, 1989);The Arts of Alasdair Gray (ed. R. Crawford and T. Nairn, Edinburgh, 1992)." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.