Walter Scott

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Sir Walter Scott(1771-1832) was a prolific Scottish writer, considered the inventor of the genre of historical fiction. He originally had a great success with romantic narrative poetry, written in his own name. His biographer Lockhart wrote of his first work in this field, published in 1805: "In the history of British Poetry, nothing had ever equalled the demand for the Lay of the Last Minstrel." [1] He produced further works of this nature until 1817, but in 1812 his fame was eclipsed by the even greater success of Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. He took to writing historical fiction, his first novel Waverley appearing anonymously in 1814. Subsequent works were said to be by the Author of Waverley, and were known as the Waverley novels. These were also very successful.[2]

Mark Twain considered his influence pernicious.[3]


  1. Lockhart, J G. The Life of Sir Walter Scott. 1836
  2. Drabble, M, ed. Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford University Press. 1995
  3. e g Life on the Mississippi, ch XL