Romantic

Walter Scott

1771–1832

Walter Scott (1771–1832) was born in Edinburgh, practised as an advocate, and held the offices of Sheriff-Depute of Selkirkshire and Clerk of Session for most of his life. He was the most popular poet in Britain — The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), Marmion, The Lady of the Lake — before turning, anonymously, to the Waverley novels in 1814. Ivanhoe (1819) was the first he set outside Scotland. Made a baronet in 1820, he was ruined by his publishers’ failure in 1826 and wrote on to pay the debts.

Sources: Bibliomancer editorial note, written from standard reference facts (dates, places, principal works).