James Hogg

James Hogg
Portrait, 1830
Portrait, 1830
Bornbefore 9 December 1770
Ettrick, Selkirkshire, Scotland
Died21 November 1835 (aged 64)
Ettrick, Selkirkshire, Scotland
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • essayist
  • poet
  • biographer
  • journalist
Period1794–1835
Notable worksThe Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
SpouseMargaret Phillips
Children
  • Elizabeth
  • James
  • Harriet
  • Jessie
  • Margaret
  • Mary
  • Catherine
RelativesMargaret Laidlaw (mother)

James Hogg (1770 – 21 November 1835) was a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both Scots and English. As a young man he worked as a shepherd and farmhand, and was largely self-educated through reading. He was a friend of many of the great writers of his day, including Sir Walter Scott, of whom he later wrote an unauthorised biography. He became widely known as the "Ettrick Shepherd", a nickname under which some of his works were published, and the character name he was given in the widely read series Noctes Ambrosianae, published in Blackwood's Magazine. He is best known today for his novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. His other works include the long poem The Queen's Wake (1813), his collection of songs Jacobite Relics (1819), and his two novels The Three Perils of Man (1822), and The Three Perils of Woman (1823).