Hogg, James

November 1770 - 30 November 1835

Scottish poet, novelist, and short-story writer, Hogg (known in his day as "the Ettrick Shepherd") is in some ways representative of the Romantic phenomenon of the "natural poet," a self-taught writer thought to represent a "naive" or uncorrupted human perspective. While indeed self-taught (Hogg was largely illiterate until he was in his early twenties), Hogg's literary achievements belie some of the stereotypes associated with him. While he at times deliberated cultivated the pose of the natural poet, Hogg's literary sensibilities were acute, and his acquaintance with Sir Walter Scott and involvement in some of Scott's projects helped further develop his talents. (Scott and Hogg would later have a falling out in part on the basis of a disagreement over the literary uses of supernaturalism.) Most famous today for Confessions of a Justified Sinner, Hogg also wrote a number of supernaturalist tales and poems, many of which appeared in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine and which were collected (and poorly revised and edited) in The Shepherd's Calendar (1829).

Sites:
Biographical note
[Writing Scotland]
Biographical essay
[Gillian Hughes, U Stirling; Literary Encyclopedia]
Brief biographical note
[David S. Mack, Scottish Authors]
Brief biographical note
[Wikipedia]
Brief biographical note
[Famous Scots]
James Hogg Society
Primarily an analog rather than a digital society; there is a brief biographical note, plus of course much info about the Society.
Brief biographical note
At a genealogy website; be sure to check out the deathmask photo. [Hogg Surname Centre]
Brief overview of Hogg's career
Emphasizes Hogg in relation to Robert Burns. [Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21), Bartleby]
Brief biographical note
[Gothic Labyrinth]
Brief biographical note
[John W. Cousins, A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, 1910]
Bibliography
Includes brief biographical note. [FantasticFiction]
James Hogg and "The Shepherd's Dog"
Several discussions of Hogg as a farmer, shepherd, and owner of Border Collies, at The Border Collie Museum. Any poet this fond of Border Collies has got to be worth paying attention to....
Portraits
[National Portrait Gallery, London]


Etexts:
"Mary Burnet" (56K) a LitGothic etext

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner [1824]
"...a marvelous document of psychopathology," according to E. F. Bleiler, who goes on to identify this novel as "one of the great classics of supernatural fiction." When Bleiler speaks, we all should listen; besides, there's no question this one's a stunner.
- at Project Gutenberg (491K)
- at Page by Page Books


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Essays and Reviews:
James Hogg and Walter Scott
Discusses the relationship between the two writers.
"James Hogg and The Unfathomable Hell"
by Richard D. Jackson. A study of Hogg's understanding of "the horrors of opium" and its use in his works. [Romanticism on the Net]
"Dialogue and Marginality in James Hogg's Confessions of a Justified Sinner"
by Rick Incorvati [Prometheus Unplugged?]

"James Hogg."