Abstract Fourteen previously unpublished manuscripts by Archibald Geikie are reproduced here for the first time in approximate date order. The earliest identified manuscripts date from 1847: ‘Fable One’ and ‘Frogs Desiring a King’. Geikie was only 12 years old when he wrote these compositions. Others are dated 1852, 1853 and 1857 and were all written early in Geikie’s life and are very important for understanding his intellectual development at that time.