Burke and Hare murders two men were hanged in December 1831 for the crime. A bill was quickly introduced into Parliament, and gained royal assent nine months later to become the Anatomy Act 1832. This Act authorised dissection on bodies from workhouses unclaimed after 48 hours, and ended the practice of anatomising as part of the death sentence for murder. The events of the West Port murders have made appearances in fiction. They are referred to in Robert Louis Stevenson's 1884 short story, "The Body Snatcher", and Marcel Schwob told their story in the last chapter of "Imaginary Lives" (1896), while the Edinburgh-based author
Edinburgh International Book Festival a cheap, non-establishment alternative. In 2008 there were two separate festivals running at the same time as the main book festival. The first was the Edinburgh Book Fringe, which held its events at the Word Power bookshop (now Lighthouse bookshop) on Nicolson Street, Edinburgh. The second was the West Port Book Festival, which was centred on second-hand/antiquarian bookshops in the West Port area of the city. The latter ran from 2008 until 2012. Both fringe festivals provided free events and were seen as a less formal alternatives to the main festival. Edinburgh International Book Festival The Edinburgh International Book Festival