Henry Mackenzie

The son of a physician, Henry Mackenzie was born in Edinburgh and studied at Edinburgh University. He was articled to an attorney before traveling to London to study law in 1765. Returning to Edinburgh, he began a career as a writer, achieving great renown with The Man of Feeling (1771) and success with two periodicals he edited, The Mirror (1779-80) and The Lounger (1785-87) Mackenzie was Comptroller of Taxes for Scotland (1804-31), a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and chairman of the Highland Society committee that investigated the poems of Ossian.

TEXT RECORDS:

1765 ca.The Vision of Vanity.
1771Lavinia. A Pastoral.
1771The Old Batchelor. After the Manner of Spenser.
1771The Old Maid, after the same Manner.
1788[Additional Lines for Collins's Superstitions Ode.]
1829Recantation.

PUBLICATIONS:

The man of feeling. 1771.
The pursuits of happiness. 1771.
The man of the world. 2 vols, 1773.
The prince of Tunis: a tragedy. 1773.
Julia de Roubigne. 1777.
The mirror [ed. Mackenzie, et. al.] 1779-80, 1794.
The lounger [ed. Mackenzie, et. al.] 1785-87.
Works. 8 vols, 1807; 1808.
Miscellaneous works. 3 vols, 1819.
Virginia: or the Roman father. 1820?
Account of the life and writings of John Home. 1822.
Works. 1824.
The anecdotes and egotisms of Henry Mackenzie, ed. Harold W. Thompson. 1927.
Letters to Elizabeth Rose of Kilravock, on literature, events, and people, 1768-1815, ed. Horst W. Drescher. 1967.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

Scottish
Presbyterian

Edinburgh High School
Edinburgh University

lawyer
novelist
poet
essayist
dramatist
translator

The Lounger
The Mirror
Town and Country Magazine
Blackwood's Magazine
Friendship's Offering

Joanna Baillie
Rev. Thomas Blacklock
Robert Burns
Thomas Campbell
Robert Pearse Gillies
Anne Grant
David Hume
Rev. Andrew Macdonald
Dr. David Macbeth Moir
William Robertson
Samuel Rogers
Sir Walter Scott
Adam Smith

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL; DLB.

Catalogue of five hundred Celebrated Authors (1788); David Rivers, Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798); "Henry Mackenzie" Weekly Magazine [Philadelphia] 4 (20 April 1799) 49-50 [from Rivers]; "Mr. Henry Mackenzie" Port Folio [Philadelphia] 3 (11, 18 June 1803) 188-89, 195-96; "Biography of Mackenzie" Merrimack Magazine [Newburyport] 1 (15, 22 February, 1, 8 March 1806) 106, 110, 113-14, 117-28; [portrait in Works, 1808]; Poetical Register for 1810-11 (1814); Biographica Dramatica (1812); Thomas Noon Talfourd, "Living Novelists: Mackenzie" in New Monthly Magazine 13 (March 1820) 323-26; Walter Scott, in Ballantyne's Novelist's Library (1823); Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 101 (February 1831) 182-83; Robert Chambers, revised Thomson, Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen (1832-35; 1870); The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34) 3:562-63; Allan Cunningham, "Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 774-75; Portrait in Miscellaneous Works (1836); Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); William Anderson, Scottish Nation (1859-63); Ralston Inglis, Dramatic Writers of Scotland (1868); Thomas Constable, Archibald Constable and his Literary Correspondents (1873) 2:244-45; James Grant Wilson, Poetry of Scotland (1876); Margaret Oliphant, Literary History of England (1882); John Ross, "Henry MacKenzie" in Early Critical Reviews of Robert Burns (1900); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); Harold W. Thompson, A Scottish Man of Feeling: some Account of Henry Mackenzie (1931); Gerard A. Barker, Henry MacKenzie (1975); Valentine, British Establishment (1970); Butt, OHEL (1979).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Henry Mackenzie:

1.	1771 ca.  E. C., "Verses to the Author of the Man of Feeling, found on a blank Leaf of that Copy of the Book which belonged to the late Mr. Granger" 1771 ca.; Scots Magazine 47 (September 1785) 456.
2.	1771  Gilbert Stuart, Review of Mackenzie, Man of Feeling; Monthly Review 44 (May 1771) 418.
3.	1782  Hannah More, in "Sensibility" Sacred Dramas (1782) 284-85.
4.	1787  William Cowper to Lady Hesketh, 27 November 1787; Southey, Life and Works of Cowper (1835-37) 6:87.
5.	1787  Robert Burns to Mrs. Dunlop, 10 April 1790; Works, ed. Douglas (1877-79) 5:309.
6.	1791  Samuel Rogers, Journal entry, 21 April 1791; P. W. Clayden, The Early Life of Samuel Rogers (1887) 165-71.
7.	1805  James Mackintosh, 1805; Life of Sir James Mackintosh (1853) 1:22-23.
8.	1807  Lord Byron to William Bankes, 1807; Letters and Journals, ed. Rowland E. Prothero (1898-1901) 1:123.
9.	1809  Nathan Drake, in Essays Illustrative of the Rambler (1809-10) 2:366-75.
10.	1814 ca.  Robert Pearse Gillies, 1814 ca.; Memoirs of a Literary Veteran (1851) 2:181.
11.	1815  T. Lyman, in "Letters from Edinburgh" North American Review [Boston] 1 (September 1815) 346-47.
12.	1817  Anonymous, in "The Chaldee Manuscript" Blackwood's Magazine (1817); Noctes Ambrosianae, ed. Mackenzie (1854) 1:xxi.
13.	1819  William Hazlitt, in English Comic Writers (1819; 1909) 141.
14.	1819  John Gibson Lockhart, "Letter X. Mr. M—" Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk (1819) 1:95-105.
15.	1822  John Wilson to William Blackwood, May 1822; Margaret Oliphant, William Blackwood and his Sons (1897) 1:270-72.
16.	1825  Walter Scott, 6 December 1825; Lockhart, Life of Scott (1837-38; 1902) 4:397-98.
17.	1829  Felicia Hemans, 1829; Memorials of Mrs. Hemans, ed. Chorley (1836) 2:61-62.
18.	1833  Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 774-75.
19.	1854  Leigh Hunt, in Selections from English Authors; Works (1854) 3:192-93.
20.	1856  Samuel Rogers, in Table Talk (1856) 44.
21.	1882  Margaret Oliphant, in The Literary History of England (1882) 1:175-76.
22.	1887  P. W. Clayden, in The Early Life of Samuel Rogers (1887) 111-13.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Henry Mackenzie:

1.	1782  Isaac Reed, in Biographia Dramatica; or, A Companion to the Playhouse (1782) 1:292.
2.	1788  Anonymous, in Catalogue of five hundred Celebrated Authors (1788).
3.	1798  David Rivers, in Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798) 2:6-7.
4.	1803  Anonymous, "Mr. Henry Mackenzie, Author of the Man of Feeling, &c. &c." Port Folio [Philadelphia] 3 (11, 18 June 1803) 188-89, 195-96.
5.	1812  Stephen Jones, in Biographia Dramatica; or, A Companion to the Playhouse (1812) 1:468.
6.	1824  Walter Scott, "Henry Mackenzie" 1824; Scott, Miscellaneous Prose Works (1829) 3:209-21.
7.	1831  Anonymous, Obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 101 (February 1831) 182-83.
8.	1832  William Clarke and Robert Shelton Mackenzie, in The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most eminent Persons who have flourished in Great Britain (1832-34) 3:562-63.
9.	1844  Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 2:177-78.
10.	1859  William Anderson, in Scottish Nation (1859-66) 3:23-25.
11.	1882  Margaret Oliphant, in The Literary History of England (1882) 1:168-83.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1786  Robert Burns:   Henry Mackenzie, The Lounger No. XCVII (9 December 1786) 385-88.
2.	1825 ca.  Dr. John Armstrong:   Henry Mackenzie, Anecdotes and Egotisms, 1825 ca.; ed. Thompson (1927) 39.
3.	1825 ca.  Robert Burns:   Henry Mackenzie, Anecdotes and Egotisms, 1825 ca.; ed. Thompson (1927) 151-52.
4.	1825 ca.  Thomas Campbell:   Henry Mackenzie, Anecdotes and Egotisms, 1825 ca.; ed. Thompson (1927) 168.
5.	1825 ca.  Thomas Chatterton:   Henry Mackenzie, Anecdotes and Egotisms, 1825 ca.; ed. Thompson (1927) 155.
6.	1825 ca.  Rev. Charles Churchill:   Henry Mackenzie, Anecdotes and Egotisms, 1825 ca.; ed. Thompson (1927) 167-68.
7.	1825 ca.  William Collins:   Henry Mackenzie, Anecdotes and Egotisms, 1825 ca.; ed. Thompson (1927) 165-66.
8.	1825 ca.  Abraham Cowley:   Henry Mackenzie, Anecdotes and Egotisms, 1825 ca.; ed. Thompson (1927) 156.
9.	1825 ca.  William Cowper:   Henry Mackenzie, Anecdotes and Egotisms, 1825 ca.; ed. Thompson (1927) 165-66.
10.	1825 ca.  Rev. George Crabbe:   Henry Mackenzie, Anecdotes and Egotisms, 1825 ca.; ed. Thompson (1927) 163-64.
11.	1825 ca.  Richard Cumberland:   Henry Mackenzie, Anecdotes and Egotisms, 1825 ca.; ed. Thompson (1927) 203.
12.	1825  William Drummond:   Henry Mackenzie, Anecdotes and Egotisms, 1825 ca.; ed. Thompson (1927) 154-55.
13.	1825 ca.  Robert Fergusson:   Henry Mackenzie, Anecdotes and Egotisms, 1825 ca.; ed. Thompson (1927) 150.
14.	1825 ca.  William Gifford:   Henry Mackenzie, Anecdotes and Egotisms, 1825 ca.; ed. Thompson (1927) 158.
15.	1825 ca.  William Hayley:   Henry Mackenzie, Anecdotes and Egotisms, 1825 ca.; ed. Thompson (1927) 167.
16.	1825 ca.  William Henry Ireland:   Henry Mackenzie, Anecdotes and Egotisms, 1825 ca.; ed. Thompson (1927) 139.
17.	1825 ca.  George Lyttelton:   Henry Mackenzie, Anecdotes and Egotisms, 1825 ca.; ed. Thompson (1927) 155-56.
18.	1825 ca.  Rev. Andrew Macdonald:   Henry Mackenzie, Anecdotes and Egotisms, 1825 ca.; ed. Thompson (1927) 206.
19.	1825 ca.  Alexander Pope:   Henry Mackenzie, Anecdotes and Egotisms, 1825 ca.; ed. Thompson (1927) 156.
20.	1825 ca.  James Thomson:   Henry Mackenzie, Anecdotes and Egotisms, 1825 ca.; ed. Thompson (1927) 39-40.
21.	1825 ca.  Richard Tickell:   Henry Mackenzie, Anecdotes and Egotisms, 1825 ca.; ed. Thompson (1927) 148.
22.	1825 ca.  Horace Walpole:   Henry Mackenzie, Anecdotes and Egotisms, 1825 ca.; ed. Thompson (1927) 135.
23.	1825 ca.  William Wordsworth:   Henry Mackenzie, Anecdotes and Egotisms, 1825 ca.; ed. Thompson (1927) 162.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(biography records)

1.	1793  Rev. Thomas Blacklock:   Henry Mackenzie, "Some Account of the Life and Writings of Dr. Blacklock" Poems of the late Reverend Dr. Thomas Blacklock (1793) i-xxx.