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Article: A justified sinner and his sheep Christopher Tayler assesses a study of an unlikely Romantic writer, James Hogg Electric Shepherd: A Likeness of James Hogg by Karl Miller Faber, pounds 25, 401 pp pounds 25 ( pounds 2.25 p&p) 0870 155 7222
- Article from:
- The Sunday Telegraph London
- Article date:
- August 17, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2003 The Sunday Telegraph London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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IN HIS LIFETIME , James Hogg achieved a fairly unusual
distinction: his literary fame was, many believed, largely the result
of other men's impersonations. Born in the Ettrick Forest, in the
Scottish Borders, in 1770, Hogg was a spasmodically educated farmer-
poet who, in his early thirties, came to the attention of Sir Walter
Scott.
His volume of poems The Queen's Wake was a hit in 1813, and for
the rest of his life he produced a steady stream of Scots ballads,
stories, "visionary" poems, novels and articles. Byron thought "very
highly of him, as a poet", and Beethoven wrote a setting for one of
his songs. To the broader public, however, Hogg was perhaps less
noted for his writings than he ...