Scottish literature: Quick Facts

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Engraved portrait of Robert Burns, shown from the waist up wearing a dark jacket and cravat, facing slightly to the left.

Scott Monument, Edinburgh

Muriel Spark stands indoors wearing a light-colored blouse, leaning against a table with decorative objects, looking directly at the camera.

Take a one-of-a-kind museum tour with Chicago Scots President Gus Noble

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Key People

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson

British author

Engraved portrait of Robert Burns, shown from the waist up wearing a dark jacket and cravat, facing slightly to the left.

Robert Burns

Scottish poet

Sir Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott

Scottish writer

Smollett, detail of an oil painting by an unknown artist, about 1770; in the National Portrait Gallery, London

Tobias Smollett

Scottish novelist

Barrie, 1893

J.M. Barrie

Scottish author

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Ian Maclaren

Scottish author

De Quincey, Thomas

Thomas De Quincey

British author

Ian Rankin

Ian Rankin

Scottish author

Scottish poet Allan Ramsay

Allan Ramsay

Scottish poet

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William Dunbar

Scottish poet

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Gawin Douglas

Scottish bishop and poet

Lyndsay, drawing after a woodcut on the title page of Lyndsay's Workes, 1634

Sir David Lyndsay

Scottish poet

Lockhart, detail of an oil painting by H.W. Pickersgill, 1830

John Gibson Lockhart

Scottish biographer

John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir

John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir

British statesman and author

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Neil Miller Gunn

Scottish author

Beattie, detail of an engraving by William Ridley after a portrait by an unknown artist

James Beattie

Scottish poet

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John Barbour

Scottish author

A.J. Cronin, c. 1930.

A.J. Cronin

British author

MacDiarmid

Hugh MacDiarmid

Scottish poet

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Alasdair Gray

Scottish novelist, playwright, and artist

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

Famous Poets and Poetic Form

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:

Poetry: First Lines