Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) was a Scottish novelist, poet, and historian, widely regarded as the founder of the historical novel genre through his Waverley series, published anonymously between 1814 and 1832. Born in Edinburgh, he gained early fame with narrative poems like Marmion and The Lady of the Lake before transitioning to novels that popularized Scottish history and Romanticism across Europe. Knighted in 1820, he died at his Abbotsford estate after years of prodigious writing to pay off debts.