MATTHEW HAWKINS applauds a psychotherapist’s disection of William Blake
Walter Scott: The father of the historical novel
On his 250th birth anniversary, JENNY FARRELL looks back at the life and work of the great Scottish writer
HOME FROM HOME: The early 16th-century Mailholm Tower in Scotland was where Walter Scott spent much time time during his youth
[Keith Proven/Creative Commons] 
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GORDON PARSONS acknowledges the authority with which Sarah Kane’s theatrical justification for suicide has resonance today
RON JACOBS welcomes a timely homage to one of the IWW and CPUSA’s most effective orators
WALTER SCOTT, celebrated by Marxist critic Gyorgy Lukacs as the founder of the historical novel, was born in Edinburgh 250 years ago on August 15, 1771.
Born into the upper middle class, his family preserved a sense of tradition of one of the great Scottish clans. Like Rabbie Burns, Scott grew up with the songs and legends of Scotland, a cultural awareness that created a deep sense of national identity.
Scott’s collection Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, a ballad anthology, made him famous. Besides writing, he was deputy sheriff of Selkirkshire, part-owner of a printing press and later a publishing house. Growing debts, however, impacted on his writing.
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As Caspar David Friedrich’s 250th anniversary is celebrated in Berlin and New York, JENNY FARRELL urges viewers of the German Romantic painter to understand its true historical context, and beware its co-option by the far-right
As Caspar David Friedrich’s 250th anniversary is celebrated in Berlin and New York, JENNY FARRELL urges viewers of the German Romantic painter to understand its true historical context, and beware his co-option by the far right
