Alexander Wilson

Stephen Van-Hagen (University of Coventry)
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The editor of the third volume of the recent

Eighteenth-Century English Labouring-Class Poets

anthologies, Tim Burke, writes in the introduction to his selection of Wilson's poems that the latter was “the most successful of the many Scottish labouring-class poets who flourished in the years following the dramatic rise to fame of Robert Burns” (

Eighteenth-Century English Labouring-Class Poets

,

vol. III: 1780-1800

, ed. Tim Burke, gen. ed. John Goodridge, 2003, p.179). In 1876 Alexander Grosart argued that this success endured long after Wilson's death, asserting that

… with the exception of Allan Ramsay, Fergusson, and Burns, none of our Scottish vernacular poets has been so continuously kept ‘in print' as Alexander Wilson. Since publication by himself of the thin volume of 1790,

1189 words

Citation: Van-Hagen, Stephen. "Alexander Wilson". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 February 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12020, accessed 19 March 2024.]

12020 Alexander Wilson 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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