MacPherson, James

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MacPherson, James (1738–93). Man of letters, and the moving force behind the discovery of the Poems of Ossian. Taken up by the Edinburgh literati in 1760 as a Gaelic speaker with a taste for bardic verse, he was sent to the Highlands to search for more substantial works. These were quickly discovered, translated, and published 1762–5, prefaced by long and influential essays by MacPherson and the critic Hugh Blair. MacPherson was immediately accused of forgery, a charge which he resented, but never tried to rebut. His literary career faltered although his free version of the Illiad (1773) is not without interest and his History of Great Britain from the Restoration to the Accession of the House of Hanover (1775) achieved a limited success. He died in 1790, having made a living as a government propagandist and a fortune as agent of the nabob of Arcot.

Nicholas Phillipson

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James Macpherson

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