Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, influential novelist, poet, and historian, and biographer Sir Walter Scott studied law as an apprentice to his father before his writing career flourished. At age 25, he published his first work, The Chase, and William and Helen (1796), a translation of two Romantic ballads by the German balladeer G.A. Bürger. In 1799, he was appointed sheriff depute of the county of Selkirk, and he held this position for the rest of his life. In 1806, he was appointed clerk to the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

Scott became an instant best seller with historical narrative poems like The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), followed by The Lady of the Lake (1810), Rokeby (1813), and The Lord of the Isles (1815). He also wrote immensely successful historical novels. Waverley, which he published anonymously in 1814, is now considered the first historical novel in Western literature. This story revolves around the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. Scott’s many other novels include Ivanhoe (1819), The Heart of Midlothian (1818), Rob Roy (1817), The Antiquary (1816), and Guy Mannering (1815).

After living in Naples, Italy in 1831, Scott returned home as his health declined, and he died in Abbotsford, Roxburgh, Scotland, on September 21, 1832.