Lanark 1982 an unofficial Alasdair Gray website Unlikely Stories, Mostly (1983)

Unlikely Stories, Mostly was Gray's first short story collection and the beginning of him getting his hands on full control of the way his books look. For Lanark, Gray might have designed the layout of the text, contributed his own artwork for the dust jacket and illustrated five full-page title pages, and this would be more than enough for most writers. But Gray wanted more, so for this book (and most first editions since) he commandeered the hardback's boards as well, insisting they were embossed in silver with an intricate pattern of thistles and the motto "Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation", a motto that recurs regularly in his later book designs.

Recently, Unlikely Stories was reissued as number 81 in the Canongate Classics series (Lanark was reissued in a special edition as number 100, in March 2001). In any edition (Canongate or Penguin, Hardback or Paperback), however, Unlikely Stories is a beautiful book, certainly the most sumptiously illustrated of all his works. The quality of the stories is also consistently high, with only Logopandocy and The Great Bear Cult able to try the patience of anybody.

The collection brings together most of Gray's short work up to the early 1980s, much of which had been published (although not widely available) before. The earliest story (The Star) was published when Gray was just 17; even allowing for a certain amount of rewriting, it's a precocious achievement. The first hardback edition, published by Canonagate in 1983, was issued with a mock erratum slip, printed on a tiny piece of paper (3" x 1") in red ink, warning:
ERRATUM: This slip has been inserted by mistake

Full list of contents to the first edition:

• The Star (First pub. Collins Magazine for Boys and Girls 1951)
• The Spread Of Ian Nicol (First Pub. Ygorra, Glasgow Students Charity Magazine 1956)
• The Problem
• The Cause of Some Recent Changes (First pub. Ygorra 1957)
• The Comedy of the White Dog (First pub. Glasgow University Magazine 1970 and in a separately issued unillustrated pamphlet from the Glasgow Print Studio in 1979
• The Crank That Made The Revolution (First pub. The Scottish Field 1971)
• The Great Bear Cult
• The Start Of The Axletree (First pub. Collins Scottish Short Stories 1979)
• Five Letters From An Eastern Empire (First pub. Words Magazine 1979)
• Logopandocy
• Prometheus
• The End Of The Axletree
• A Likely Story In A Nonmarital Setting
• A Likely Story In A Marital Setting

BUY THIS BOOK Alasdair Gray's books are sometimes difficult to get hold of. Where they are available, I have included links below to the amazon sites in the UK and the USA. Where a record is on their database, they will usually include links to used-book sellers who can offer the title, even if it is not available direct from amazon themselves.
Alternatively, you can try emailing Morag McAlpine, who can send you a list of available titles. She usually has a variety of out-of-print books, often signed, and also a selection of prints of Gray's artwork, also signed.