Holcroft, Thomas, 1745-1809

Radical journalist, critic, novelist, translator, and playwright; Holcroft's two most important novels include Anna St. Ives (1792), a novel that reworks plot and character elements of Samuel Richardson's Clarissa (1747-9) to shape a response to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), and The Adventures of Hugh Trevor (1794), which offers a more general satire on the established order. The majority of his plays were comedies, though later work includes the dark, unsuccessful drama, The Inquisitor (1798).

Hogg, James, 1770-1835

Indeed born in the Ettrick Forest and following the occupation of shepherd, James Hogg published several of his works under the sobriquet the "Ettrick Shepherd," a character he was to continue into his Edinburgh writing career, including his contributions to Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. His first major publication, The Mountain Bard (1807) was a collection of ballads. His most significant work was a novel, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1834).

Hill, John, 1714?-1775

Also known as Sir John Hill, he was a notable botanist, writer, and journalist. Many of his publications are collected in The letters and papers of Sir John Hill, 1714-1775 (1982). Between the years of 1752 and 1753, Hill engaged in a "paper war" with rival authors including Tobias Smollett and Henry Fielding. In particular, The Story of Elizabeth Canning Considered (1753) was hostile to Canning and Fielding, arguing in favor of the perjury verdict that resulted in Canning's transportation to Connecticut. and