Aims of the Edition

Aims of the EditionJohn Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854) has been understudied and undervalued by critics and literary historians in large measure because his obsessive insistence on anonymity means that the full extent of his literary work and influence is not generally known.Lockhart's works have never been collected, and there have been no critical editions of individual works.The extent and significance of his literary accomplishments have been eclipsed by his role in the attacks on Leigh Hunt, John Keats, and William Hazlitt in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, and by his authorship of the biography of his father-in-law, Sir Walter Scott.Lockhart had a career in literature that spanned nearly four decades, serving for much of that time (1826-1853) as editor of what was perhaps the premier journal of his age, The Quarterly Review, published in London by John Murray.Lockhart began his literary career in 1817 with the Edinburgh publisher, William Blackwood, who sent Lockhart to Germany on a literary tour where he met Goethe and other German literati.Lockhart's first book-length publication was a two-volume translation of Frederick Schlegel's Lectures on the History of Literature, Ancient and Modern (1818).Lockhart was also a major contributor to Blackwood's new publishing venture, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, and over his lifetime wrote or had a hand in more than two hundred works in Blackwood's.There was biting satire, certainly, but those works are small in number.The vast majority of his Blackwood's works are significant, incisive works of literary criticism covering a broad range of topics from Greek tragedy and poetry to early Spanish literature to works of contemporary American, British, and German authors.His Blackwood's works also include serious and satirical verse, as well as essays on important political and social topics of his day.He published four novels during his time with Blackwood, as well as a fictitious account of the Edinburgh and Glasgow literary, cultural, legal, political, and religious scenes, Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk.Other works during this period include a collection of Spanish translations, Ancient Spanish Ballads; an edition of Don Quixote, with his annotations and a biographical essay on Cervantes; and a lengthy biographical