Originally published in two volumes in 1816 and 1820, this collection of biographical information and anecdotes tracing the career of the artist Benjamin West (1738 1820) is reissued here in one volume. Prepared by the Scottish novelist John Galt (1779 1839), it is based on the personal recollections of West himself, yet it is acknowledged to include some embellishment. Born in Pennsylvania and largely self-taught, West was the first American artist to travel through Italy to improve his skill by studying antique sculptures and old master paintings. After he came to London in 1763, his...

John Galt (1779-1839) has been described as the first political novelist in the English language. This edition is a development of the collection - published in 2001 by the Saltire Society in Edinburgh - which brought together the three early works 'Annals of the Parish' (1821), 'The Ayrshire Legatees' (1821) and 'The Provost' (1822). To these characteristic, and very successful, shorter novels - set in the rural Scotland of the late eighteenth century, as agricultural society was giving way to the new industrial growth - is now added 'The Entail' (1823), a full-length masterpiece. As Ian...