Complete mimeographed typescript of the entire proceedings of the 1962 International Writers Conference, held on 20-24 August 1962 at the McEwan Hall, Edinburgh, during that year's Edinburgh Festival.

The conference's list of delegates included such luminaries as Norman Mailer, Colin McInnes, Henry Miller, Alexander Trocchi, Mary McCarthy and a host of other over 70 writter in all. The career of William Burroughs was effectively launched by his contributions to the event, on the subjects of censorship and the future of the noyel. The conference was held to address the question "How does the novel form stand today?", but didn't get off to the greatest of starts when Hugh MacDiarmid took to the rostrum to denounce Alexander Trocchi and his work as "cosmopolitan scum". William Burroughs' novel Naked Lunch came under attack but was defended by Mary Mccarthy, with Norman Mailer declaring Burroughs "the only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius."

Following Burroughs' scintillating performances at the Conference itself, Naked Lunch went on to stir up the longest ever running correspondence in the Times Literary Supplement; as literary critics and the reading public alike failed very noisily to agree on the quality of the book. What was clear, though, was that the book was an important one, and the row was the making of the reputation of both the novel and its author.

The Edinburgh International Writers Conference 1962 was a pivotal moment in Scottish literary and cultural history, with its notorious clash between Hugh MacDiarmid and Alexander Trocchi seen as ushering in a new generation open to American Beat poetry and Pop Art-influenced experimentalism.