thumb|Walter Scottin muotokuva, maalannut Sir Henry Raeburn
'''Walter Scott''' (skotlantilainen historiallisia romaaneja kirjoittanut kirjailija, joka on suosittu ympäri Eurooppaa.

== Henkilöhistoria ==

Walter Scott syntyi Skotlannissa. 25-vuotiaana hän aloitti kirjoitusharrastuksensa, käänsi ensin saksankielisiä teoksia ja siirtyi sitten runouteen. Näiden kahden kirjallisuusuransa vaiheiden välissä hän julkaisi kolmiosaisen sarjan skotlantilaisia balladeja, ''The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border''. Se oli ensimmäinen merkki hänen kirjallisesta kiinnostuksestaan Skotlantia ja sen historiaa kohtaan. Vuonna 1797 Scott meni naimisiin Charlotte Carpenterin kanssa, ja heille syntyi viisi lasta.

Sen jälkeen kun Scott oli perustanut kirjapainon, hän saavutti mainetta runoudellaan, joka alkoi teoksella ''The Lay of the Last Minstrel'' vuonna Schubertin ''Ave Mariaan''. ''Marmion'', tämän ajanjakson toinen teos, synnytti joitakin Scottin lainatuimmista lauseista. 

Kun kirjapaino joutui rahavaikeuksiin, pyrki Scott vuonna 1814 kirjoittamaan menestysteoksen, "rahasammon". Näin syntyi ''Waverley'', romaani vailla tekijän nimeä. Se kertoo Ison-Britannian viimeisestä jakobiittikapinasta ja saavutti melkoisesti menestystä. Sitä seurasi koko joukko romaaneja seuraavan viiden vuoden aikana, kaikki yleisesti ottaen tyyliltään samanlaisia. Runoilijanmaineestaan tarkkana Scott jatkoi ''Waverleyssa'' alkanutta nimettömyyttä ja julkaisi aina romaaninsa nimellä "Waverleyn kirjoittaja" tai tekijän kohdalla ”...:n tarinoita” ilman tekijän nimeä. Silloinkin kun oli selvää, ettei julkisuuteen tulo olisi haitannut, hän piti yllä nimettömyyden kulissia, ilmeisesti huvin vuoksi. Tänä aikana salaperäisestä menestyskirjailijasta käytettiin yleisesti lisänimeä "The Wizard of the North", "Pohjoisen velho". Kirjoittajan oikeasta henkilöllisyydestään huhuttiin silti laajalti.

thumb|Scottin monumentti [[Edinburghissa]]

Vuonna baronetin arvonimen.

Vuonna 1825 Scottilla alkoi olla jälleen suuria talousvaikeuksia, sillä hänen yrityksensä melkein romahti. Yleiseen tietoisuuteen tuli myös tällöin, että hän oli romaanien kirjoittaja. Konkurssin sijaan Scott panttasi kotinsa Abbotsford Housen ja tulonsa velkojensa pantiksi ja ryhtyi kirjoittamaan itseään veloista vapaaksi. Scott säilytti hämmästyttävän tuotteliaisuutensa (ja kirjoitti myös Napoleon Bonaparten ei-fiktiivisen elämäkerran) vuoden 1831 ajan. Sitten hänen terveytensä heikkeni, ja hän kuoli Abbotsfordissa vuonna 1832. Vaikka velkoja ei tällöin vielä ollut kuitattu kokonaan, hänen romaaninsa myivät yhä, ja Scott sai velkansa maksettua vielä haudastaan käsin. Hänet haudattiin Dryburgh Abbeyhin, jonka lähellä seisoo juuri sopivasti suuri William Wallacen patsas – tämä oli yksi Skotlannin romanttisimmista historiallisista hahmoista.

Scott vastasi kahdesta merkittävästä suuntauksesta, jotka ovat jatkuneet tähän päivään saakka. Ensiksi, hän popularisoi historiallisen novellin: valtava määrä hänen jäljittelijöitään (ja jäljittelijöiden jäljittelijöitä) ilmestyi 1800-luvulla. Scottin vaikutus oli niin suuri, että vuonna 1854 avattua Edinburghin keskusrautatieasemaa kutsutaan Waverley Stationiksi, Waverleyn asemaksi.

Toiseksi, Scottin skotlantilaiset romaanit palauttivat arvon Ylämaan kulttuurille jakobiittikapinoita seuranneiden synkkien vuosien jälkeen. On kuitenkin paikallaan huomauttaa, että Scott oli Alamaan skotti ja että näkemyksensä Ylämaista olivat enemmän kuin vähän epätodellisia. Tiedetään, että hän keksi monia klaanitartaaneja pelkästään Yrjö IV:n Skotlannin-vierailua varten vuonna 1822. Silti vaikka hän ei ole yhtä suosittu nykyään, ''Waverleyn'' ja sen seurausten vaikutukset näkyvät yhä.

{{Infobox Writer <!-- for more information see :Template:Infobox Writer/doc -->
| name        = Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet
| image       = Sir Walter Scott - Raeburn.jpg
| imagesize   = 200px
| caption     = Raeburn's portrait of Sir Walter Scott in 1822.
| pseudonym   = 
| birthdate  = August 15, 1771
| birthplace = Edinburgh, Lothian, Scotland
| deathdate  = 
| deathplace = Melrose, Borders, Scotland
| occupation  = Historical novelist, poet
| nationality = 
| period      = 
| genre       = 
| subject     = 
| movement    = 
| spouse      =
| partner     =
| children    =
| relatives   =
| influences  = Shakespeare, King James Bible, chronicle
| influenced  = Victor Hugo, Honoré de Balzac, historical novel
| signature   = 
| website     = 
}}
thumb|150px|[[Portrait of Sir Walter Scott, by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer]]

'''Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet''' (Scottish historical novelist and poet popular throughout Europe during his time.

In some ways Scott was the first English-language author to have a truly international career in his lifetime, with many contemporary readers all over Europe, English-language literature and of Rob Roy'', ''The Lady of The Lake '', ''Waverley'',''The Heart of Midlothian'' and ''The Bride of Lammermoor''.

== Early days ==
thumb|left|Scott's childhood at Sandyknowe farm, seen across the lochan from [[Smailholm Tower, introduced him to the Borders.]]
Born in College Wynd in the Old Town of Borders region at his grandparents' farm at Sandyknowe, adjacent to the ruin of Bath in England.  In the winter of 1776 he went back to Sandyknowe, with another attempt at a water cure being made at Prestonpans during the following summer,<ref>[http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/biography/sandy.html Sandyknowe and Early Childhood]</ref> 

In 1778 Scott returned to Edinburgh for private education to prepare him for school, and in October 1779 he began at the Royal High School of Edinburgh. He was now well able to walk and explore the city as well as the surrounding countryside. His reading included chivalric romances, poems, history and travel books. He was given private tuition by James Mitchell in arithmetic and writing, and learned from him the history of the Kirk with emphasis on the Covenanters. After finishing school he was sent to stay for six months with his aunt Jenny in Kelso, attending the local Grammar School where he met James Ballantyne who later became his business partner and printed his books.<ref name=uni>[http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/biography/education.html School and University]</ref>
right|thumb|Robert Burns
Scott began studying classics at the John Langhorne, and was thanked by Burns.<ref name=lit>[http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/biography/beginning.html Literary Beginnings]</ref> When it was decided that he would become a lawyer he returned to the university to study law, first taking classes in Moral Philosophy and Universal History in 1789–90.<ref name=uni/>

After completing his studies in law, he became a lawyer in Edinburgh. As a lawyer's clerk he made his first visit to the Scottish Highlands directing an eviction. He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1792. He had an unsuccessful love suit with Williamina Belsches of Fettercairn, who married Sir William Forbes, 6th Baronet.

== Literary career launched ==
thumb|right|Scott's childhood at Sandyknowes, close to [[Smailholm Tower, introduced him to tales of the Scottish Borders.]]
At the age of 25 he began dabbling in writing, translating works from German, his first publication being rhymed versions of ballads by Bürger in 1796. He then published a three-volume set of collected Scottish ballads, ''The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border''. This was the first sign of his interest in Scottish history from a literary standpoint. 

Scott then became an ardent volunteer in the Sheriff-Deputy of the County of Selkirk, based in the Royal Burgh of Selkirk.

In his earlier married days, Scott had a decent living from his earnings at the law, his salary as Sheriff-Deputy, his wife's income, some revenue from his writing, and his share of his father's rather meagre estate.

After Scott had founded a printing press, his poetry, beginning with ''The Lay of the Last Minstrel'' in The Lady of the Lake'', printed in 1810 and set in the Trossachs. Portions of the German translation of this work were later set to music by Franz Schubert. One of these songs, ''Ellens dritter Gesang'', is popularly labelled as "Schubert's ''Ave Maria''".

Another work from this period, ''Marmion'', produced some of his most quoted (and most often mis-attributed) lines. Canto VI. Stanza 17 reads:

:''Yet Clare's sharp questions must I shun,''
:''Must separate Constance from the nun''
:'''''Oh! what a tangled web we weave'''''
:'''''When first we practice to deceive!'''''
:''A Palmer too! No wonder why''
:''I felt rebuked beneath his eye;''

In 1809 his  sympathies led him to become a co-founder of the ''Quarterly Review'', a review journal to which he made several anonymous contributions.

== Novels ==
thumb|Walter Scott
When the press became embroiled in pecuniary difficulties, Scott set out, in Waverley'', a English protagonist Edward Waverley, by his Tory upbringing sympathetic to Hanoverian respectability. The novel met with considerable success. There followed a succession of novels over the next five years, each with a Scottish historical setting. Mindful of his reputation as a poet, he maintained the anonymous habit he had begun with ''Waverley'', always publishing the novels under the name '''Author of Waverley''' or attributed as "Tales of..." with no author. Even when it was clear that there would be no harm in coming out into the open he maintained the façade, apparently out of a sense of fun. During this time the nickname '''The Wizard of the North''' was popularly applied to the mysterious best-selling writer. His identity as the author of the novels was widely rumoured, and in George, Prince Regent, who wanted to meet "the author of Waverley".

In 1819 he broke away from writing about Scotland with ''Ivanhoe'', a historical romance set in 12th-century England. It too was a runaway success and, as he did with his first novel, he wrote several books along the same lines. Among other things, the book is noteworthy for having a very sympathetic Jewish major character, Rebecca, considered by many critics to be the book's real heroine - relevant to the fact that the book was published at a time when the struggle for the Emancipation of the Jews in England was gathering momentum.
 
As his fame grew during this phase of his career, he was granted the title of Bonnie Prince Charlie made tartans and kilts fashionable and turned them into symbols of Scottish national identity.

Scott included little in the way of punctuation in his drafts which he left to the printers to supply.<ref>Stuart Kelly quoted by Arnold Zwicky in [http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003718.html#more The Book of Lost Books] at [http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003718.html#more Language Log]</ref>

== Financial woes ==
Beginning in 1825 he went into dire financial straits again, as his company nearly collapsed. That he was the author of his novels became general knowledge at this time as well. Rather than declare bankruptcy he placed his home, Abbotsford House, and income into a trust belonging to his creditors, and proceeded to write his way out of debt. He kept up his prodigious output of fiction (as well as producing a biography of Napoléon Bonaparte) until 1831. By then his health was failing, and he died at Abbotsford in 1832. Though not in the clear by then, his novels continued to sell, and he made good his debts from beyond the grave. He was buried in Dryburgh Abbey where nearby, fittingly, a large statue can be found of William Wallace&mdash;one of Scotland's most romantic historical figures.

== His home, Abbotsford House ==
thumb|right|250px|Displays of armour at [[Abbotsford House]]
When Sir Walter Scott was a boy he sometimes travelled with his father from Melrose, in the Border Country where some of his novels are set. At a certain spot the old gentleman would stop the carriage and take his son to a stone on the site of the battle of Melrose (1526). Not far away was a little farm called Cartleyhole, and this he eventually purchased. 
In due course the farmhouse developed into a wonderful home that has been likened to a fairy palace. Through windows enriched with the insignia of heraldry the sun shone on suits of armour, trophies of the chase, fine furniture, and still finer pictures. Panelling of oak and cedar and carved ceilings relieved by coats of arms in their correct colour added to the beauty of the house. More land was purchased, until Scott owned nearly 1,000 acres (4 km²), and it is estimated that the building cost him over £25,000. A neighbouring Roman road with a ford used in olden days by the abbots of Melrose suggested the name of Abbotsford.

The last of his direct descendants to inhabit Abbotsford House was his great-great-great granddaughter Dame Jean Maxwell-Scott (8 June 1923 - 7 July 2004).  She inherited it from her elder sister Patricia in 1998.  Patricia and Jean turned the house into one of Scotland's premier tourist attractions, after they had to rely on paying visitors to afford the upkeep of the house.  It had electricity installed only in 1962.  Dame Jean was at one time a lady-in-waiting to Dandie Dinmont Club, for a breed of dog named after one of Sir Walter Scott's characters; and a horse trainer, one of whose horses, Sir Wattie, ridden by Ian Stark, won two silver medals at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.<ref>Obituary of Dame Jean Maxwell-Scott, ''Sydney Morning Herald'', 13 July 2004, p. 32</ref>

== Critical assessment ==
left|thumb|250px|The [[Scott Monument, Edinburgh<br>'''Alternative View''']]
Among the early critics of Scott was Mark Twain, who blamed Scott's  "romanticization of battle" for what he saw as the South's decision to fight the American Civil War. Twain's ridiculing of chivalry in ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'', in which Twain has the main character repeatedly utter "great Scott" as an oath, is considered as specifically targeting Scott's books. Twain also targeted Scott in ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' where he names a sinking boat the ''Walter Scott.'' Three crooks drown on this wreck.

thumb||Sir Walter Scott's statue at his memorial in Edinburgh

From being one of the most popular novelists of the 19th century, Scott suffered from a disastrous decline in popularity after the First World War. The tone was set early on in E.M. Forster's  classic "Aspects of the Novel" (1927), where Scott was savaged as being a clumsy writer who wrote slapdash, badly plotted novels. Scott also suffered from the rising star of Jane Austen. Considered merely an entertaining "woman's novelist" in the 19th century, in the 20th Austen began to be seen as perhaps the major English novelist of the first few decades of the 19th century. As Austen's star rose, Scott's sank, although, ironically, he had been one of the few male writers of his time to recognize Austen's genius.

Scott's ponderousness and prolixity were fundamentally out of step with Modernist sensibilities. Nevertheless, Scott was responsible for two major trends that carry on to this day. First, he essentially invented the modern historical novel; an enormous number of imitators (and imitators of imitators) would appear in the 19th century. It is a measure of Scott's influence that Edinburgh's central railway station, opened in Waverley Station. Second, his Scottish novels followed on from Highland culture after years in the shadows following southern distrust of hill bandits and the Jacobite rebellions. As enthusiastic chairman of the ''Lowland Scot, and that his re-creations of the Highlands were more than a little fanciful. His organisation of the visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822 was a pivotal event, leading Edinburgh tailors to invent many "clan tartans" out of whole cloth, so to speak.  
After being essentially unstudied for many decades, a small revival of interest in Scott's work began in the 1970s and 1980s. Ironically, postmodern tastes (which favoured discontinuous narratives, and the introduction of the 'first person' into works of fiction) were more favourable to Scott's work than Modernist tastes. Despite all the flaws, Scott is now seen as an important innovator, and a key figure in the development of Scottish and world literature. 

Scott was also responsible, through a series of pseudonymous letters published in the ''Edinburgh Weekly News'' in 1826, for retaining the right of Scottish banks to issue their own banknotes, which is reflected to this day by his continued appearance on the front of all notes issued by the Bank of Scotland.

Many of his works were illustrated by his friend, William Allan.