James Hogg was a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both Scots and English. He is best known for his novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. Gillian Hughes, Independent Scholar, has been a General Editor of the Stirling/South Carolina Research Edition of the Collected Works of James Hogg, and is currently an advisory editor for the Edinburgh Edition of Walter Scott’s Poetry and for the New Edinburgh Edition of the Works of Robert Louis Stevenson. She has published critical editions of works by each of these writers, and also a biography of James Hogg. The late Douglas S. Mack was formerly Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Stirling.

Hogg was one of the most complex Scots of his time, as his most famous friend Scott realised when he acknowledged he was a genuine genius. It has taken Scotland a long time to wake up to the enduring importance of the author of the Justified Sinner and all the works to be included in, when complete, what will amount to the 31 volumes of the Stirling/South Carolina edition of the whole Hogg. Scotland perennially recognises only one writer, but Burns is not the whole story. Gillian Hughes has masterfully and meticulously edited the Lay Sermons. An invaluable resource not only to Hogg scholars, but to those interested in the genre ! and, more generally, to those devoted to Scottish literature of the period. It should be in the holdings of any major research library. Hogg was one of the most complex Scots of his time, as his most famous friend Scott realised when he acknowledged he was a genuine genius. It has taken Scotland a long time to wake up to the enduring importance of the author of the Justified Sinner and all the works to be included in, when complete, what will amount to the 31 volumes of the Stirling/South Carolina edition of the whole Hogg. Scotland perennially recognises only one writer, but Burns is not the whole story.