Jackson Bibliography of Romantic Poetry

SCOTT, Walter (1771-1832: ODNB)

One of the most influential writers of the time, he was born at Edinburgh, one of six surviving children of Anne (Rutherford), daughter of a professor of physiology at the university, and Walter Scott, a Writer to the Signet. In 1772, he became ill with polio and was sent to live at Sandyknowe, his grandfather’s Roxburghshire farm. Scott later credited his interest in oral tales and ballads to his early years in the country. Subsequently, he was educated at the Edinburgh High School where he formed connections important later to both his literary and his legal careers. In 1783 illness again took him out of the city, to Kelso where he met his future printer and business partner, James Ballantyne. Scott studied at Edinburgh University and was indentured to his father for legal training. In 1792 he was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates. He married French-born Margaret Charlotte Carpenter (d 1826) in 1797; they were to have five children with four (two girls and two boys) surviving past infancy. They divided their time between Edinburgh and a succession of homes in the Scottish borders—most famously Abbotsford. In 1799 he was appointed sheriff-depute of Selkirkshire and he held that post until his death; in 1806 he also became principal clerk to the court of session in Edinburgh, a post which generously augmented his legal earnings. Scott early began laying the groundwork for his literary career through his travels in Scotland and research into Scottish culture and history. Enthusiasm for German literature inspired him to publish his translations of poems by Gottfried Bürger in 1796. At about the same time, he began serious work on his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border—the first of his many editing projects that, in addition to poetry, included drama, biography, and history. The Minstrelsy heralded his original long poems which, although not always well-received critically, made him famous. His first novel, Waverley, published anonymously in 1814, was an instant success, and Scott followed it with twenty-two more novels, all issued without his name on the title page. If Scott’s output was prodigious, his thoroughgoing engagement with Scottish literary culture was transformative. He was involved in publishing through his partnership with Archibald Constable and James Ballantyne and established Edinburgh as a rival to London. He contributed reviews to the Edinburgh Review, Quarterly Review (which he helped to establish), and Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine. He counselled and offered practical help to other authors. He nurtured connections to European and North American literatures, both because of translations and adaptations of his own works and through his correspondence with other writers. Beyond these activities, he was responsible for the rediscovery of the Scottish regalia at Edinburgh Castle in 1818 (for this he was made a baronet) and choreographed the visit of George IV to Scotland in 1822. In 1825-6, he was caught up in the widespread economic collapse of the publishing industry. Left with extensive personal liability, Scott worked for the rest of his life to pay off the debt, including by revisiting his works to add introductions and notes so that they could be lucratively sold in sets. He avoided declaring bankruptcy, but overwork brought on ill-health and he suffered the first in a series of strokes in 1830. He was encouraged to travel to a warmer climate and he reluctantly set off for the Mediterranean and Europe in 1831, returning to Abbotsford only months before his death in 1832. He was buried beside his wife at Dryburgh Abbey, Berwickshire. (ODNB 1 Nov. 2020)

• Scott
• W. Scott

Books written (233):