Scott, Sir Walter

Walter Scott, Scottish poet and novelist, invented the genre of historical fiction. An Edinburgh lawyer, he also ran a printing press, and his poem The Lay of the Last Minstrel brought him fame. He began writing novels because they were more lucrative, beginning with Waverly in 1814; thereafter, to maintain his reputation as a poet, he published fiction as 'The Author of Waverley. '  He suffered from debt his whole life, but his writings were terrifically popular and continue to be so today.

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