Allan Cunningham

Allan Cunningham began his career as an apprentice stonemason with only a dame-school education. He marched in Burns's funeral, made the acquaintance of James Hogg, and began collecting (and writing) Scots poetry. In 1810 he traveled to London and worked in the studio of the sculptor Francis Chantrey. Cunningham contributed to Blackwood's and the London Magazine, and edited The Anniversary, a prominent annual. With C. W. Dilke, J. H. Reynolds, and Thomas Hood, Allan Cunningham was part-proprietor of The Athenaeum. He published using the signature "Hildallan."

TEXT RECORDS:

1812The Scottish Seer.
1817The Soldier's Return from Waterloo.
1830The Maid of Elvar.
1830The Maid of Elvar. Part Eighth.
1830The Maid of Elvar. Part Eleventh.
1830The Maid of Elvar. Part Fifth.
1830The Maid of Elvar. Part Fourth.
1830The Maid of Elvar. Part Ninth.
1830The Maid of Elvar. Part Second.
1830The Maid of Elvar. Part Seventh.
1830The Maid of Elvar. Part Sixth.
1830The Maid of Elvar. Part Tenth.
1830The Maid of Elvar. Part Third.
1830The Maid of Elvar. Part Twelfth.

PUBLICATIONS:

The magic bridle. nd.
Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway song. 1810.
Songs, chiefly in the rural language of Scotland. 1813.
Sir Marmaduke Maxwell: a dramatic poem; The mermaid of Galloway; The legend of Richard Faulder etc. 1822.
Traditional tales of the English and Scottish peasantry. 2 vols,1822.
The songs of Scotland, ancient and modern, with introduction and notes. 4 vols, 1825.
Paul Jones: a romance. 3 vols, 1828.
Sir Michael Scott: a romance. 3 vols, 1828.
Lives of the most eminent British painters, sculptors, and architects. 6 vols, 1829-33.
Some account of the life and works of Sir Walter Scott. 1832.
The Maid of Elvar: a poem in twelve parts. 1833.
The cabinet gallery of pictures. 2 vols, 1833-34.
Biographical and critical history of the British literature of the last fifty years. 1834.
Lord Roldan: a romance. 3 vols, 1836.
The life and correspondence of Robert Burns. 1836.
The life and land of Burns with contributions by T. Campbell and an essay by T. Carlyle [ed. Cunningham]. 3 vols, 1843.
Poems and Songs, ed. Peter Cunningham. 1847.
Correspondence in David Hogg, The Life of Cunningham (1875).

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

Scottish
Presbyterian

no formal education

clerk
artisan
editor
poet
novelist
essayist
journalist

The Morning Chronicle
The Satirist
The Literary Gazette
Literary Recreations
Scots Magazine
Blackwood's Magazine
Knight's Quarterly Magazine
London Magazine
The Athenaeum
New Monthly Magazine
Fraser's Magazine
Sharpe's London Magazine
Edinburgh Literary Journal
Forget-Me-Not
Friendship's Offering
Literary Souvenir
The Amulet
The Anniversary
The Gem
The Diadem
Juvenile Forget-Me-Not
Christmas Box

Bernard Barton
Robert Burns
Thomas Carlyle
Rev. Henry Francis Cary
John Clare
Thomas Mounsey Cunningham
George Darley
James Hogg
Thomas Hood
James Hyslop
William Jerdan
Charles Lamb
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
John Gibson Lockhart
Mary Russell Mitford
Edward Moxon
John Murray
John Hamilton Reynolds
Sir Walter Scott
Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe
Robert Southey
James Telfer
John Wilson
William Wordsworth

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL; CBEL (3rd ed); DLB.

"Allan Cunningham" La Belle Assemblee S3 5 (February 1827) 53-57; Bryan Waller Procter, "Cunningham's Songs" Edinburgh Review 47 (January 1828) 184-204; James Hogg, "My first Interview with Allan Cunningham" Edinburgh Literary Journal No. 27 (16 May 1829) 374-75; John Gibson Lockhart, in Life of Scott (1837-38); Robert Southey, "To Allan Cunningham" (1828) in Works (1837) 3:305-18; George B. Cheever, Studies in Poetry ... Elegant Extracts (1830); Blackwood's Magazine 31 (June 1832) 981-1002; William Maginn, "Gallery of Literary Characters: Allan Cunningham, Esq." Fraser's Magazine 6 (September 1832) 249 [portrait]; Robert Chambers, revised Thomson, Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen (1832-35; 1870); The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34); S. C. Hall, in The Book of Gems (1838); Thomas De Quincey, "Literary Reminiscences" (1840) in Works (1889-90); Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); obituary in Gentleman's Magazine NS 18 (December 1842) 665-66; George Gilfillan, in Gallery of Literary Portraits (1845); David Macbeth Moir, Poetical Literature of the Past Half-Century (1851); Katherine Byerley Thomson, in Recollections of Literary Characters (1854); Charles Rogers, Scottish Minstrel (1855-57) [portrait]; George Gilfallan, in Galleries of Literary Portraits, vol. 1 (1856); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Andrew R. Bonar, Poets and Poetry of Scotland (1864); William Anderson, Scottish Nation (1865); S. C. Hall, "Allan Cunningham" Art Journal 18 (1866); Ralston Inglis, Dramatic Writers of Scotland (1868); David Hogg, The Life of Cunningham, with Selections from his Works and Correspondence (1875) [portrait]; James Grant Wilson, Poetry of Scotland (1876); Maclise Gallery (1898); De Quincey, London Reminiscences (in Collected Writings, 1890, v. 3); David McAllister, in Poets and Poetry of the Covenant (1894); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); F. Miller, The Poets of Dumfriesshire (1910); Reschke, Die Spenserstanze (1918); L. A. Marchand, The Athenaeum: a Mirror of Victorian Culture (1941); Jack, OHEL (1963); G. E. H. Hughes, "The life and works of Allan Cunningham" (PhD diss., Cambridge University, 1975); Prance, Companion to Charles Lamb (1983); Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Allan Cunningham:

1.	1813  Anonymous, "Lines, written on reading a volume of beautiful rural Ballads and Songs, just published" Scots Magazine 75 (September 1813) 696.
2.	1819  Robert Southey to Allan Cunningham, 10 July, 1819; Life and Correspondence (1849-50) 4:349-51.
3.	1820  Walter Scott to Allan Cunningham, 1820; David Hogg, Life of Cunningham (1875) 200.
4.	1822  Anonymous, in Review of Cunningham, Sir Marmaduke Maxwell; The Literary Gazette (23 March 1822) 176-77.
5.	1822  William Branwhile Clarke, "To Allan Cunningham" 1822; London Magazine 7 (April 1823) 372.
6.	1822  James Harley, in The Press, or Literary Chit-Chat. A Satire (1822) 38 &n.
7.	1823  William Wordsworth to Allan Cunningham, 23 November 1823; Letters, ed. Knight (1907) 2:207-11.
8.	1823  William Branwhite Clarke, "To Allan Cunningham, by the Author of The River Derwent" London Magazine 7 (April 1823) 372.
9.	1828  John Wilson to Alaric Alexander Watts, 29 November 1828; in Alaric Alfred Watts, Alaric Watts, a Narrative of his Life, by his Son (1884) 2:26-27.
10.	1828  Robert Southey, "Epistle to Allan Cunningham" 1828; Poetical Works (1844) 209-12.
11.	1828  Bryan Waller Procter, in "Poetry — Cunningham's Songs" Edinburgh Review 47 (January 1828) 201-04.
12.	1829  James Hogg, "My first Interview with Allan Cunningham" Edinburgh Literary Journal (16 May 1829) 374-75.
13.	1829  Anna Brownell Jameson, "Heroines of Modern Poetry" Loves of the Poets (1829; 1857) 511-12.
14.	1830  Henry Glassford Bell, in "The Men whom I get Glorious with!" Edinburgh Literary Journal (30 October 1830) 225.
15.	1831  John Gibson Lockhart, in Review of Southey, Lives of Uneducated Poets; Quarterly Review 44 (January 1831) 82.
16.	1832  James Hogg, in Autobiography (1832); Works (1865) 2:464-65.
17.	1832  William Maginn, "Gallery of Literary Characters: Allan Cunningham, Esq." Fraser's Magazine 6 (September 1832) 249.
18.	1834  Allan Cunningham to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, 27 September 1834; Sharpe, Letters (1888) 2:381-82.
19.	1839  Thomas Hood, in "Reminiscences of Thomas Hood" Hood's Own (1839) 557.
20.	1840  Anonymous, in Chambers's Cyclopedia of English Literature (1840-44; 1879) 6:22.
21.	1843  Bernard Barton to Mr. Chemisha, 1843; Barton, Memoir, Letters, and Poems (1850) 103.
22.	1845  George Gilfillan, "Allan Cunningham and the Rural Poets" Gallery of Literary Portraits (1845) 355-65.
23.	1851  David Macbeth Moir, in Sketches of the Poetical Literature of the Past Half-Century (1851; 1852) 111-14.
24.	1852  William Jerdan, in Autobiography of William Jerdan (1852-53) 2:161-62.
25.	1854  Katherine Byerley Thomson, in Recollections of Literary Characters (1854) 2:230-31.
26.	1854  Robert Shelton Mackenzie, Note in Noctes Ambrosianae, ed. Mackenzie (1854) 2:34n.
27.	1862  Thomas Arnold, in A Manual of English Literature (1862; 1885) 454-55.
28.	1871  S. C. Hall, "Allan Cunningham" in A Book of Memories: Great Men and Women of the Age, from personal Acquaintance (1871) 417-25.
29.	1875  David Hogg, in Life of Allan Cunningham (1875) 373.
30.	1877  Bryan Waller Procter, in Procter: An Autobiographical Fragment (1877) 206-07.
31.	1882  Margaret Oliphant, in The Literary History of England (1882) 3:197-99.
32.	1882  Epes Sargent, in Harper's Cyclopaedia of British and American Poetry (1882) 366.
33.	1891  Samuel Smiles, "Allan Cunnintham" A Publisher and his Friends: Memoir of John Murray (1891) 2:152-54.
34.	1894  David McAllister, in Poets and Poetry of the Covenant (1894) 243-45.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Allan Cunningham:

1.	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) 3:585.
2.	1838  S. C. Hall, in The Book of Gems. The Modern Poets and Artists of Great Britain (1838) 144.
3.	1842  Anonymous, Obituary in Gentleman's Magazine NS 18 (December 1842) 665-66.
4.	1844  Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 2:499-500.
5.	1855  Charles Rogers, in Modern Scottish Minstrel (1855-57) 3:1-8.
6.	1879  Anonymous, Memoir in Cunningham, British Painters (1879) 1:vii-xxi.
7.	1894  David McAllister, in Poets and Poetry of the Covenant (1894) 243-45.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1811  Rev. James Grahame:   Allan Cunningham, "Epitaph on James Grahame, Author of The Sabbath, Georgics, &c." Scots Magazine 73 (November 1811) 855.
2.	1824  Robert Burns:   Allan Cunningham, "Robert Burns and Lord Byron" London Magazine 10 (August 1824) 117-24.
3.	1825  Michael Bruce:   Allan Cunningham, in Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern (1825) 1:228-29.
4.	1825  Robert Burns:   Allan Cunningham, in Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern (1825) 1:230-36.
5.	1825  Robert Fergusson:   Allan Cunningham, in Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern (1825) 3:298-99.
6.	1825  William Hamilton of Bangour:   Allan Cunningham, in Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern (1825) 1:190-93.
7.	1825  Anne Hunter:   Allan Cunningham, in Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern (1825) 1:214-15.
8.	1825  Hector Macneill:   Allan Cunningham, in Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern (1825) 1:241-44.
9.	1825  David Mallet:   Allan Cunningham, in Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern (1825) 1:193-97.
10.	1825  William Julius Mickle:   Allan Cunningham, in Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern (1825) 1:226-28.
11.	1825  Bp. Thomas Percy:   Allan Cunningham, in Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern (1825) 1:312.
12.	1825  Allan Ramsay:   Allan Cunningham, in Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern (1825) 1:179-85.
13.	1825  Alexander Ross:   Allan Cunningham, in Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern (1825) 1:216-17.
14.	1825  Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe:   Allan Cunningham to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, 10 March 1825; Letters from and to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharp (1888) 2:331-32.
15.	1825  Tobias Smollett:   Allan Cunningham, in Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern (1825) 1:201-05.
16.	1825  James Thomson:   Allan Cunningham, in Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern (1825) 1:199-201.
17.	1825  Alexander Wilson:   Allan Cunningham, in Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern (1825) 1:247-48.
18.	1826  Thomas Mounsey Cunningham:   Allan Cunningham to James Hogg, 16 February 1826; David Hogg, Life of Allan Cunningham (1875) 265.
19.	1828  Mary Russell Mitford:   Allan Cunningham to Mary Russell Mitford, 21 November 1828; L'Estrange, Friendships of Mary Russell Mitford (1882) 132.
20.	1828  Alaric Alexander Watts:   Allan Cunningham to John Wilson, 12 December 1828; Mary Wilson Gordon, Christopher North (1862, 1894) 317.
21.	1828  John Wilson:   Allan Cunningham to John Wilson, 11 September 1828; Hogg, Life of Cunningham (1875) 287.
22.	1828  William Wordsworth:   Allan Cunningham to John Wilson, 12 December 1828; Hogg, Life of Cunningham (1875) 296.
23.	1830 ca.  William Jerdan:   Allan Cunningham to William Jerdan, 1830 ca.; William Jerdan, Autobiography of William Jerdan (1852-53) 4:301-02.
24.	1831  Sir Walter Scott:   Allan Cunningham, "Living Literary Characters: Sir Walter Scott" New Monthly Magazine 31 (January 1831) 72-87.
25.	1833  Rev. William Lisle Bowles:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 772.
26.	1833  Lord Byron:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 771.
27.	1833  Thomas Campbell:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 770.
28.	1833  Rev. Henry Francis Cary:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 772.
29.	1833  George Chalmers:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (30 November 1833) 814.
30.	1833  Samuel Taylor Coleridge:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" in The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 769.
31.	1833  William Cowper:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (26 October 1833) 714-15.
32.	1833  Rev. George Crabbe:   Allan Cunningham, in "Literature of the Last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (November-December 1833) 715-16.
33.	1833  Rev. George Croly:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (30 November 1833) 812.
34.	1833  Isaac D'Israeli:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (14 December 1833) 851.
35.	1833  Ebenezer Elliott:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 772.
36.	1833  William Gifford:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (November-December 1833) 892.
37.	1833  William Godwin:   Allan Cunningham, in "Literature of the Last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (November-December 1833) 774.
38.	1833  Rev. James Grahame:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (26 October 1833) 720.
39.	1833  William Hayley:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (14 December 1833) 851.
40.	1833  William Hazlitt:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (28 December 1833) 893.
41.	1833  Felicia Hemans:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" Athenaeum (November-December 1833) 773.
42.	1833  James Hogg:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (26 October 1833) 720-21.
43.	1833  Thomas Hood:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 772.
44.	1833  Mary Howitt:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 773.
45.	1833  Leigh Hunt:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 772.
46.	1833  John Keats:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" in The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 772.
47.	1833  William Kennedy:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 772.
48.	1833  Charles Lamb:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 769-70.
49.	1833  Walter Savage Landor:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 772.
50.	1833  John Gibson Lockhart:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (30 November 1833) 812.
51.	1833  Thomas Babington Macaulay:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (28 December 1833) 892.
52.	1833  Henry Mackenzie:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 774-75.
53.	1833  Sir James Mackintosh:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (30 November 1833) 814-15.
54.	1833  Mary Russell Mitford:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (30 November 1833) 809.
55.	1833  William Motherwell:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 772.
56.	1833  Anna Maria Porter:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 775.
57.	1833  Thomas Pringle:   Allan Cunningham, "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" in The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 772.
58.	1833  Bryan Waller Procter:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 772.
59.	1833  Samuel Rogers:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (26 October 1833) 716.
60.	1833  William Roscoe:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (14 December 1833) 849.
61.	1833  Sir Walter Scott:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (26 October 1833) 717-18.
62.	1833  Percy Bysshe Shelley:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 771-72.
63.	1833  Horace Smith:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (30 November 1833) 811.
64.	1833  William Sotheby:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 772.
65.	1833  Robert Southey:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (26 October 1833) 718-19.
66.	1833  William Tennant:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 772.
67.	1833  Alaric Alexander Watts:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 772.
68.	1833  Henry Kirke White:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 771.
69.	1833  John Wilson:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 770.
70.	1833  William Wordsworth:   Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (November-December 1833) 718.
71.	1834  Allan Cunningham:   Allan Cunningham to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, 27 September 1834; Sharpe, Letters (1888) 2:381-82.
72.	1834  Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe:   Allan Cunningham to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, 27 September 1834; Letters from and to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharp (1888) 2:480-82.
73.	1836  Mary Howitt:   Allan Cunningham to Alaric Alexander Watts, 10 October 1836; in Alaric Alfred Watts, Alaric Watts, a Narrative of his Life, by his Son (1884) 2:209.
74.	1836  Alaric Alexander Watts:   Allan Cunningham to Alaric Alexander Watts, 10 October 1836; in Alaric Alfred Watts, Alaric Watts, a Narrative of his Life, by his Son (1884) 2:209-10.
75.	1841  Bernard Barton:   Allan Cunningham to Bernard Barton, 3 June 1841; E. V. Lucas, Bernard Barton and his Friends (1893) 125.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(biography records)

1.	1824  John Paul Jones:   Allan Cunningham?, "Sketches of Paul Jones" London Magazine 9 (May 1824) 492-99.
2.	1829  William Blake:   Allan Cunningham, in Lives of the most eminent British Painters (1829-33; 1879) 1:392-427.
3.	1832  Sir Walter Scott:   Allan Cunningham, "Some Account of the Life and Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart." The Athenaeum (6 October 1832) 641-53.