James Hogg - Biography, Reference

Writer, born near Ettrick, Scottish Borders, SE Scotland, UK. He tended sheep in his youth, and after only a spasmodic education he became a writer of ballads, which achieved some success thanks to the patronage of Walter Scott. He eventually settled in Edinburgh, and wrote several works in verse and prose, notably The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824).

For the Texas Governor, see Jim Hogg

James Hogg (1770 - November 21, 1835) was a Scottish poet and novelist who wrote in both Scots and English.

Biography

Hogg was born on a farm near Ettrick Forest in Selkirkshire and baptized there on December 9. He struggled to produce poetry of his own, and Laidlaw introduced him to Sir Walter Scott, who asked him to help with a publication entitled The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. His own collection, The Mountain Bard, was published in 1807 and became a best-seller, allowing him to buy a farm of his own. Having made his name, he started a literary magazine, The Spy, and his epic story-poem, The Queen's Wake (the setting being the return to Scotland of Queen Mary (1561) after her exile in France), was published in 1813 and was another big success. and in 1824 his novel, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, was another major success.

Hogg died in 1835 from hiccups.

Nowadays Hogg's poetry and essays are little read.

Other works

The Forest Minstrel (1810) (poetry) The Pilgrims of the Sun (1815) (poetry) Brownie of Bodsbeck (1817) (novel) Jacobite Reliques (1819) (collection of Jacobite protest songs) The Three Perils of Man (1822) (novel) The Three Perils of Woman (1923) (novel) Queen Hynde (1925)) (poetry) Songs by the Ettrick Shephard (1831) (songs/poetry) The Brownie of the Black Haggs (1828) (short story/tale) The Domestic Manner and Private Life of Sir Walter Scott (1834) ("unauthorised" biography)

Reference

The Electric Shepherd: A Likeness of James Hogg (2004) Karl Miller