3 Review(s)

As son-in-law and literary executor to Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854) was uniquely placed to produce a definitive biography of the great poet and novelist. First published in 1837-8, shortly after Scott's death, this celebrated seven-volume work is based on personal memories, correspondence, and Scott's own autobiographical sketches. Wide-ranging in his purview, Lockhart is also detailed in his descriptions: the Aberdeen Journal of the day observed that the volumes trace Scott's life and literary efforts with 'the most minute distinctness'. Volume 3 opens in 1812 with an account of 'one of the busiest summers of Scott's busy life', during which he finally moved into his beloved Abbotsford. Incorporating extracts from Scott's correspondence with the English poet George Crabbe, this volume covers the period in which Scott finished Waverley (1814) and published in verse The Field of Waterloo (1815).