The son of a lawyer, Walter Scott was educated at Edinburgh High School and at the university; he was called to the bar in 1792. He began his literary career as a collector of ballads; his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border was published in 1802-03, to be followed by his best-selling poems and even more successful novels, the latter published anonymously. In 1813 Scott declined the laureateship, recommending Robert Southey. He was created a baronet in 1820. His financial difficulties began in 1826 with the bankruptcy of his publishing concern; Scott was able to pay off his creditors though the burden of additional writing is thought to have shortened his life.
TEXT RECORDS:
1805Review of Todd's Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser.
1805The Lay of the Last Minstrel.
1805The Lay of the Last Minstrel: Canto II.
1805The Lay of the Last Minstrel: Canto III.
1805The Lay of the Last Minstrel: Canto IV.
1805The Lay of the Last Minstrel: Canto V.
1805The Lay of the Last Minstrel: Canto VI.
1805The Lay of the Last Minstrel: Fitztraver's Song.
1808Marmion: Introduction to Canto I.
1808Marmion: Introduction to Canto V.
1808[Autobiographical Fragment.]
1810The Lady of the Lake; a Poem.
1811The Vision of Don Roderick; a Poem.
1813Rokeby: A Poem.
1814Waverley: More of the Manor House and its Environs.
1815The Field of Waterloo.
1815The Lord of the Isles; a Poem.
1817Harold the Dauntless: Introduction.
1817The Search after Happiness; or the Quest of Sultaun Solimaun. (In imitation of Byron).
1818[Rob Roy: Fragment from Orlando Furioso.]
1830Review of Robert Southey's edition of Pilgrim's Progress.
PUBLICATIONS:
The chase, and William and Helen: two ballads from the German. 1796.
Goetz of Berlichingen, with the iron hand: a tragedy, translated. 1799.
The eve of Saint John: a Border ballad. 1800.
Minstrelsy of the Scottish border [ed. Scott]. 2 vols, 1802.
The lay of the last minstrel. 1805.
Ballads and lyrical pieces. 1806.
Works. 6 vols, 1806.
Marmion: a tale of Flodden Field. 1808.
John Dryden, Works [ed. Scott]. 18 vols, 1808.
Anna Seward, Poetical works [ed. Scott]. 3 vols, 1810.
English minstrelsy [ed. Scott]. 2 vols, 1810.
The lady of the lake: a poem. 1810.
The vision of Don Roderick: a poem. 1811.
Works. 8 vols, 1812.
Rokeby: a poem. 1813.
The bridal of Triermain. 1813.
Jonathan Swift, Works [ed. Scott]. 19 vols, 1814.
Waverley. 3 vols, 1814.
Guy Mannering. 3 vols, 1815.
The Lord of the Isles: a poem. 1815.
The field of Waterloo: a poem. 1815.
The antiquary. 3 vols, 1816.
Paul's letters to his kinsfolk. 1816.
Tales of my landlord. 4 vols, 1816.
Harold the Dauntless: a poem. 1817.
Rob Roy. 3 vols, 1818.
Tales of my landlord: second series. 4 vols, 1818.
Tales of my landlord: third series. 4 vols, 1819.
Ivanhoe: a romance. 3 vols, 1820.
The monastery: a romance. 3 vols, 1820.
Poetical works. 12 vols, 1820.
The abbot. 3 vols, 1821.
Ballantyne's novelist's library [ed. Scott]. 10 vols, 1821-24.
Kenilworth: a romance. 3 vols, 1821.
The pirate. 3 vols, 1822.
The fortunes of Nigel. 3 vols, 1822.
Halidon Hill: a dramatic sketch. 1822.
Peveril of the Peak. 4 vols, 1822.
MacDuff's Cross: a drama. 1823.
Quentin Durward. 3 vols, 1823.
St Ronan's Well. 3 vols, 1824.
Redgauntlet: a tale of the eighteenth century. 3 vols, 1824.
Tales of the Crusaders. 4 vols, 1825.
Woodstock: or the cavalier. 3 vols, 1826.
Chronicles of the Canongate. 2 vols, 1827.
Chronicles of the Canongate, second series. 3 vols, 1828.
My aunt Margaret's mirror. 1829.
Anne of Geierstein: or the maiden of the mist. 3 vols, 1829.
The house of Aspen: a tragedy. 1830.
The doom of Devorgoil: a melo-drama. 1830.
Tales of my landlord, fourth series. 4 vols, 1832.
Poetical works, ed. J. G. Lockhart. 12 vols, 1833-34.
Miscellaneous prose works, ed. J. G. Lockhart. 28 vols, 1834-36, 1871.
Poetical works, ed. J. Logie Robertson. 1904.
Letters, ed. H. J. C. Grierson. 12 vols, 1932-37.
Journal, ed. J. G. Tait. 1939-46.
Scott on himself: a collection of the autobiographical writings, ed. David Hewitt. 1981.
PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:
Scottish
Episcopalian
Edinburgh High School
Edinburgh University
lawyer
antiquary
editor
poet
translator
novelist
dramatist
Edinburgh Review
Quarterly Review
Edinburgh Annual Register
Blackwood's Magazine
William Harrison Ainsworth
Dr. Robert Anderson
Alexander Balfour
Anna Laetitia Barbauld
Bernard Barton
Rev. Lionel Thomas Berguer
Rev. Thomas Blacklock
John Britton
Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges
Lord Byron
Thomas Campbell
George Chalmers
Rev. George Crabbe
John Wilson Croker
Allan Cunningham
Humphry Davy
Rev. Thomas Frognall Dibdin
Maria Edgeworth
George Ellis
John Hookham Frere
William Gifford
Robert Pearse Gillies
Rev. John Graham
Rev. James Grahame
Anne Grant
Bp. Reginald Heber
James Hogg
Washington Irving
Henry Gally Knight
William Knox
John Gibson Lockhart
Henry Mackenzie
Francis Noel Clarke Mundy
John Murray
Thomas Park
John Pinkerton
Rev. Richard Polwhele
Joseph Ritson
Samuel Rogers
Anna Seward
Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe
William Sotheby
Robert Southey
John Struthers
Robert Surtees
William Taylor of Norwich
James Telfer
Alexander Fraser Tytler
James Scott Walker
Alaric Alexander Watts
John Wilson
William Wordsworth
John Wright
REFERENCE:
DNB; NCBEL; CBEL (3rd ed); DLB.
Censura Literaria 4 (1807) 315-23; "On the Poetry of Southey and Walter Scott" Monthly Anthology [Boston] 9 (December 1810) 392-400; "Critical Sketches of living Poetical Characters in Edinburgh" Scots Magazine 76 (January 1812) 9-10; Poetical Register for 1810-11 (1814); "Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel" Baltimore Repertory 1 (February 1811) 82-88; "Beauties of Walter Scott's Poems" Monthly Magazine 33 (June 1812) 428-30; Biographia Dramatica (1812); Thomas Barnes, "Walter Scott" The Champion (12 February 1814) 54-55; "Parallel between Scott and Campbell" Port Folio [Philadelphia] S3 4 (November 1814) 504-06; "The Lord of the Isles in Miniature" Morning Post (9 February 1815); "On the Poetry of Walter Scott" The Friend [Albany] 1 (November 1815) 117-18; Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816); "Notice of Walter Scott" Analectic Magazine [Philadelphia] NS 8 (August 1816) 105-23; "Character of Walter Scott" The Portico [Baltimore] 1 (April 1816) 331-38; "Walter Scott" Port Folio S4 1 (June 1816) 499-503; Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the XVIII Century (1817-58); "Walter Scott" New Monthly Magazine 7 (May 1817) 325-26; "Walter Scott" New Monthly Magazine 10 (November 1818) 355-57 [portrait]; "Biographical Memoir of Walter Scott" New British Lady's Magazine 2 (January 1819) 1-4 [portrait]; "Anecdotes of Walter Scott" Belles Lettres Repository [New York] 1 (May 1819) 15-17; "On the Poetry of Walter Scott" New Monthly Magazine 11 (June 1819) 400-01; "Remarks Philosophical and Literary" Gentleman's Magazine 89 (October-November 1819) 315-17, 397-400; "Biographical Memoir of Walter Scott" New British Lady's Magazine 2 (January-February 1819) 1-4, 49-51 [portrait]; "The Author of the Scotch Novels" London Magazine 1 (January 1820) 11-22; "Sir Walter Scott" Weekly Entertainer [Sherborne] NS 1 (1 May 1820) 356-58; "The Author of Waverley" New Monthly Magazine 13 (May 1820) 543-48; "Memoir of Sir Walter Scott" European Magazine 78 (December 1820) 483-86 [portrait]; "Horae Otiosae: Walter Scott" Kaleidoscope [Liverpool] NS 1 (13 February 1821) 261; "Burns, Scott, Byron, and Campbell" Kaleidoscope [Liverpool] NS 1 (27 February 1821) 273-74; "Warton and Scott" Kaleidoscope [Liverpool] NS 1 (23 October 1821) 121; "The Author of Waverley" Weekly Entertainer [Sherborne] NS 3 (8, 22 October, 5 November 1821) 355-9, 264-67, 299-302; "On the Genius and Writings of Sir Walter Scott" Literary Speculum 1 ( December 1821) 73-83 [portrait]; "Walter Scott" Ladies' Monthly Museum S3 15 (March-April 1822) 121-26, 193-99 [portrait]; "Life of Walter Scott" Port Folio S4 13 (June 1822) 522-25; "Walter Scott" La Belle Assemblee NS 26 (September 1822) 341-44; "Sir Walter Scott" The Examiner (8 September 1822) 565; "Sir Walter Scott" Ladies' Monthly Magazine NS 15 (1822) 121-26 [portrait]; "Sir Walter Scott" Ladies' Monthly Museum NS 15 (1822) 193-99; "Sir Walter Scott" Literary Sketch-Book 1 (6-13 March 1824) 465-67, 485-88; "Sir Walter Scott" New Monthly Magazine 10 (1824) 297-304; "Sir Walter Scott" Western Luminary 1 (1824) 123-25; William Hazlitt, Select British Poets (1824); Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); William Hazlitt, Spirit of the Age (1825); "Scott and Byron" New York Mirror 2 (2 April 1825) 282-83; "Sir Walter Scott" Lady's Magazine NS 7 (1826) 106; "Sir Walter Scott" Spirit and Manners of the Age 2 (1826) 53-55; "Memoir of Sir Walter Scott" Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction 7 (Supplement, 1826) 417-26; M. L. B., "Sir Walter Scott" Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction 9 (17 February 1827) 122-24; "Sir Walter Scott" La Belle Assemblee S3 6 (December 1827) 232-41; Living Poets of England: Specimens of the Living British Poets (1827); "Sir Walter Scott" The Athenaeum (11 March 1828) 217-19; "Biography: Sir Walter Scott" New-York Mirror 5 (17 May 1828) 358-59; "Biography: Sir Walter Scott" Rural Repository [Hudson NY] 5 (5 July 1828) 21-23; James Hogg, "My first Interview with Walter Scott" Edinburgh Literary Journal (27 June 1829) 51-52; "Walter Scott" La Belle Assemblee S3 10 (July 1829) 2-6; P. L. Gordon, "Sketches from the Portfolio of a Sexagenarian: Scott at Brussels" New Monthly Magazine NS 26 (August 1829) 191-200; William Maginn, "Gallery of Illustrious Literary Characters: Sir Walter Scott" Fraser's Magazine 2 (November 1830) 412 [portrait]; George B. Cheever, Studies in Poetry ... Elegant Extracts (1830); Allan Cunningham, "Living Literary Characters: Walter Scott" New Monthly Magazine 31 (January 1831) 72-87 [portrait]; "Writings of Sir Walter Scott" New England Magazine [Boston] 3 (July 1832) 13-16; obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 102 (October 1832) 361-84; Allan Cunningham, "Some Account of the Life and Work of Sir Walter Scott" Athenaeum (6 October 1832) 641-53; "Death of Sir Walter Scott" Fraser's Magazine 6 (October 1832) 380-82; "Anecdotes of Walter Scott" Gentleman's Magazine 102 (November, December, Supplement 1832) 457-61, 556-57, 634-35; David Vedder, Memoir of Sir Walter Scott with Critical Notices of his Writings (1832); Robert Chambers, revised Thomson, Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen (1832-35; 1870); The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34); Allan Cunningham, "Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (26 October 1833) 717-18; "Recollections of the Author of Waverley" New Monthly Magazine 42 (October 1834) 208-12; James Hogg, Familiar Anecdotes of Sir Walter Scott (1834); John Gibson Lockhart, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, 7 vols (1837-38); John Keble, "Life and Writings of Walter Scott" British Critic 24 (1838); S. C. Hall, in The Book of Gems (1838); Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); William Howitt, Homes and Haunts of the ... British Poets (1847); Horace Smith, "A Graybeard's Gossip about his Literary Acquaintance" New Monthly Magazine 82 (February 1848) 249-57; Charles Rogers, Modern Scottish Minstrels (1855-57); David Macbeth Moir, Poetical Literature of the Past Half-Century (1851; 1856) 118-28; Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); William Anderson, Scottish Nation (1859-63); Andrew R. Bonar, Poets and Poetry of Scotland (1864); William Jerdan, Men I have Known (1866) 393-99; Ralston Inglis, Dramatic Writers of Scotland (1868); James Grant Wilson, Poetry of Scotland (1876); The English Poets, ed. Thomas Humphry Ward (1880); Andrew Lang, "Poems of Scott" in Essays in Little (1891); Samuel Smiles, Memoirs of John Murray (1891); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); M. Ball, Scott as a Critic of Literature (1907); Florence MacCunn, Sir Walter Scott's Friends (1909); Reschke, Die Spenserstanze (1918) 140-47; D. Carswell, Sir Walter: a Four-Part Study in Biography (1930); William Ruff, "A Bibliography of the Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott" Transactions of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society 1 (1937) 99-240, 277-82; Sir Herbert Grierson, Sir Walter Scott, Bart (1938); J. C. Corson, Sir Walter Scott: A Classified and Annotated List of Books and Articles... 1797-1940 (1943); Renwick, OHEL (1963); Jack, OHEL (1963); Peter F. Morgan, "Scott as Critic" Studies in Scottish Literature 7 (1969-70) 90-101; Edgar Johnson, Sir Walter Scott, The Great Unknown, 2 vols (1970); John O. Hayden, Scott: The Critical Heritage (1970); A. N. L. Munby, Sale Catalogues of Libraries of Eminent Persons (1971-75); John Huston Alexander, The Reception of Scott's Poetry by his Correspondents (1979); David Brown, Walter Scott and the Historical Imagination (1979); Thomas Crawford, Scott (1982); Marlon B. Ross, "Scott's Chivalric Pose: the Function of Metrical Romance in the Romantic Period," Genre 19 (Fall 1986) 267-297; Spenser Encyclopedia, "Scott" (1990); John Sutherland, Life of Walter Scott: a Critical Biography (1995).
COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Sir Walter Scott:
BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Sir Walter Scott:
AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)
AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(biography records)