ClanTime

Writers & Editors                                              

The world’s first war correspondent was a Scotsman, William Howard Russell, ‘The Times’ correspondent in the Crimean War.  He was the man who wrote about the “thin red line”, the 93^rd. Sutherland Highlanders who withstood the advance of the Russians at the battle of Balaclava before the charges of the Light and Heavy brigades.  The 1^st. British Regiment of the line is the Royal Scots.  The Royal Scots is even considered to be the oldest regiment in the world.

The historical novel was a Scottish invention!  Sir Walter Scott wrote the first historical novel, “Waverley”.  Sir Walter Scott’s monument in George Square, Glasgow, is the highest in George Square – with Scott’s shepherd’s plaid over the wrong shoulder.

The first President and chief founder of the Institute of Journalists was a Scotsman, Sir Hugh Gilzean Reid.  William Robertson Nicoll, a Scot, started “The British Weekly”.  Alexander Bain, a Scottish philosopher, was the founder of “Mind” – the leading British philosophical magazine.  James Wilson, a Hawick man, economist and politician, founded “The Economist” in 1843.

“The Edinburgh Review” founded in 1802 was the first great critical and political review.  Lord Macaulay’s famous historical and critical essays appeared in it.  Macaulay, who so traduced the Highlanders, belonged to the Macaulay’s of south-west Lewis.

The author of the famous Bible Concordance, “Cruden’s Complete Concordance”, Alexander Cruden, was an Aberdeen born Scot.  Few books have gone through as many editions as Cruden’s Concordance.

No hymn is better liked than “Abide With Me”, written by a Scotsman, Henry F. Lyte, a native of Ednam, near Kelso.

When Thomas Carlyle died “The Saturday Review” called him “… in the opinion of capable judges, the greatest writer of his time.”  Carlyle was born in the Dumfriesshire village of Ecclefechan.  Westminster Abbey was offered as a burial place but was refused on Carlyle’s explicit instructions.

No story for boys is more popular than “Treasure Island” written by Edinburgh’s Robert Louis Stevenson: and the greatest play for children is surely “Peter Pan”, written by a Scot, Sir James Barrie, born at Kirriemuir.  George Bernard Shaw published his own plays, and they were printed by a Scotsman, Maxwell.

The much loved, immortal, “storm-tossed” Robert Burns wrote “Auld Lang Syne”, the worlds greatest valedictory song, sung at Chinese funerals and Japanese Graduation Ceremonies and at all Scots Gatherings throughout the world.

No other poet has been so internationally honoured in his day as one of the world’s great poets, a Scotsman, Hugh MacDiarmid or Dr C.M Grieve.

The first Rotary Press was invented by Thomas Nelson, of Thomas Nelson and Sons, Edinburgh, and was exhibited by him in the International Exhibition of 1851.  Nelson’s rotary press was designed for bookwork, and it printed the firm’s publications at the Exhibition.  The idea of this press was shortly afterwards adopted by Walter of the London “Times” and Marinoni for newspapers.

Hugh Maxwell, a Scotsman, invented the printer’s roller, a most important invention in the history of printing.

Tobias Smollett, one of the pioneers of the English novel, author of “Roderick Random”, “Peregrine Pickle” and “Humphrey Clinker” was born within sight of Dumbarton Rock.  Many a time no doubt he heard of a boat being called clinker built.  It has been written that “with their broad humour, their life-like characters and lively style”, Smollett’s novels “have had a considerable influence on the development of English fiction”.

The greatest of America’s daily newspapers, the “New York Herald”, was founded by James Gordon, a native of Banffshire.  It was this paper which equipped and sent Sir Henry Stanley to Africa in search of David Livingstone.  Two Scots, Brown and Gilmore, founded Quebec’s first newspaper.  The late Lord Thomson of Fleet, the worlds leading newspaper owner, was a Canadian of Scottish descent.

The “Encyclopaedia Britannica” was in origin a Scottish undertaking: the first edition, 1768-71, was published by Bell and MacFarquhar of Edinburgh, with William Smellie as editor.  This encyclopaedia, dealing with “the different arts and sciences digested into distinct treatises or systems”, was the first of its kind in the world, and its full title was – “Encyclopaedia Britannica, or a Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, compiled upon a New Plan, with 160 Copperplates by a Society of Gentlemen in Scotland”.

It seems as if the first “circulating library” (lending books for a small fee) was established by Mr Allan Ramsay in the Capital city in 1725.  The first in London was opened in 1740 by a Mr Batho at 132, Strand.  Within a little over half a century nearly every large village and town had a circulating library.

James Howe, the deaf and dumb son of a Skirling minister, helped to illustrate the first edition of the “Encyclopaedia Britannica”.  Sir James A.H. Murray, born at Denholm, created the “New English Dictionary”, and edited A-D, H-K, O, P and T.  It was an Aberdonian, George Dalgarno, who invented the first artificial international language, his “Interlanguage” was published in 1651.

 Back To Top