Scott

Scott

Distinguished for his contribution to Romanticism and the historical novel, Walter Scott was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on August 15, 1771. Scott published biographies of Jonathan Swift and John Dryden and some history, as well as poems and novels. He began his literary career by writing metrical tales. The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), Marmion (1808), and The Lady of the Lake (1810) were the metricals that made him the most popular poet of his day. Sixty-five hundred copies of The Lay of the Last Minstrel were sold in the first three years after publication, a record sale for poetry. His other poems include The Vision of Don Roderick, Rokeby, and The Lord of the Isles. He then abandoned poetry for prose. In 1814, he anonymously published an historical novel, Waverly the first of the series known as the Waverley novels. He wrote 23 novels anonymously during the next 13 years. In their historical sequence, the Waverley novels range in setting from the year 1090, the time of the First Crusade, to 1700, the period covered in St. Roman's Well (1824), set in a Scottish watering place. His other historical works include Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, and The Bride of Lammermoor. His popularity, both socially and as a writer, was almost unparalleled. Scott received his title and baronetcy from King George IV in the spring of 1820. He died, Sir Walter Scott, on September 21, 1832 at his country home Abbotsford House, Roxburghshire, Scotland.