Walter Scott (1771 - 1832) was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and lawyer, generally credited with creating the historical novel as a literary form. [1] After early success as a narrative poet he turned to fiction with Waverley in 1814, launching a sequence of novels that made him the most widely read author in Europe of his generation. [2] He was created a baronet in 1820 and spent his final years writing to clear a vast debt.
Early life and education
Walter Scott was born in Edinburgh on 15 August 1771, the son of a solicitor. An illness in infancy, generally identified as polio, left him lame in one leg, and he was sent to his grandparents' farm in the Scottish Borders to recover. [1] The ballads, legends and Jacobite recollections he absorbed there shaped the whole of his later work.
He was educated at the Royal High School in Edinburgh and at the University of Edinburgh, and trained in law at the university's law school before being called to the Scottish bar in 1792. He held legal office for most of his life, serving as sheriff-depute of Selkirkshire and later as a clerk of the Court of Session. [1]
Poetry and antiquarian work
Scott's first literary reputation was as a collector and poet. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, published between 1802 and 1803, gathered traditional ballads with his own scholarly commentary. [1]
He followed it with long narrative poems, including The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), Marmion (1808) and The Lady of the Lake (1810), which sold in unprecedented numbers and made him the leading poet of the day. As Byron's popularity rose, Scott turned his attention to prose. [2]
The Waverley novels
In 1814 Scott published Waverley anonymously; set during the Jacobite rising of 1745, it presented a fictional protagonist caught in the movement of real historical forces, and its success was immediate. [2] He continued to publish anonymously for years, and the books became known collectively as the Waverley novels.
The series included Guy Mannering, The Heart of Midlothian, Rob Roy and Old Mortality, drawn from Scottish history, and Ivanhoe (1819), set in medieval England, which broadened his audience further. [1] He also wrote histories, biography including a life of Napoleon, and criticism.
Later life and legacy
Scott built the mansion of Abbotsford on the River Tweed and was created a baronet in 1820. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and played a prominent public role, notably organising the 1822 visit of George IV to Scotland, an event that shaped modern popular imagery of Highland dress and tradition. [1]
The financial collapse of 1825-26 ruined the publishing and printing businesses in which he was a partner, leaving him responsible for enormous debts. He refused bankruptcy and wrote prolifically to repay creditors, a workload that damaged his health. Scott died at Abbotsford on 21 September 1832, and the debts were cleared after his death from the proceeds of his works. [1]
His influence extended to Honoré de Balzac, Alexandre Dumas, Leo Tolstoy and the wider nineteenth-century novel, and his books supplied the libretti of several operas. [3] The Scott Monument in Edinburgh, completed in 1844, remains among the largest memorials to a writer anywhere.
