- Hogg, James
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(baptized Dec. 9, 1770, Ettrick, Selkirkshire, Scot.died Nov. 21, 1835, Altrive, Yarrow) Scottish poet.A shepherd, he was almost entirely self-educated. The talents of "the Ettrick Shepherd" were discovered by Walter Scott when Hogg supplied material for Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and his popularity accompanied the ballad revival of the early Romantic movement. Hogg's other writings include the poetry collection The Queen's Wake (1813) and The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824), a novel about religious mania with a psychopathic hero that anticipates the modern psychological thriller.
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▪ Scottish poetbaptized Dec. 9, 1770, Ettrick, Selkirkshire, Scot.died Nov. 21, 1835, Altrive, Yarrow, SelkirkshireScottish poet, known as the “Ettrick Shepherd,” who enjoyed a vogue during the ballad revival that accompanied the Romantic movement.Hogg spent most of his youth and early manhood as a shepherd and was almost entirely self-educated. His talent was discovered early by Sir Walter Scott, to whom he supplied material for Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. Before publishing The Queen's Wake (1813), a book of poems concerning Mary Stuart, Hogg went in 1810 to Edinburgh, where he met Lord Byron, Robert Southey, and William Wordsworth. Of Hogg's prolific poetic output, only a few narrative poems and ballads included in the Wake are of lasting value. Among them are “Kilmeny” and “The Witch of Fife.” Probably a more important work is Hogg's novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824), a macabre tale of a psychopath that anticipates the modern psychological thriller.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
