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Gall, Richard, 1776-1801 (Scottish poet)

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Biography

Richard Gall (1776-1801), probably the son of George Gall, a notary at Dunbar, and his wife Mary Burn(s), was educated at Haddington and initially apprenticed as a carpenter and builder. However, he soon moved to Edinburgh to train asa printer under David Ramsay of the Edinburgh Evening Courant, later acting as Ramsay’s travelling agent. During this period, he began writing Scots verse influenced by Robert Burns, with whom he may have corresponded, and formed literary connections with Thomas Campbell, Hector MacNeill, Andrew Shirrefs, and others. His closest associate was Alexander Murray (1775-1813), later Professor of Oriental Languages at the University of Edinburgh. Gall died aged twenty-five from sepsis, before substantial publication of his work.

Found in 1 Collection or Record:

Collection of Manuscript Poems by Richard Gall and Related Materials

 Fonds
Identifier: Coll-2908
Scope and Contents This is an archive of late eighteenth-century Scots poetry composed of over 40 poems in the hand of Scottish poet Richard Gall (1776-1801), together with 36 poems sent to Gall by writers in his circle, and materials relating to the posthumous publication of Gall's Poems and Songs in 1819.1. Forty-seven poems by Gall (of which some unpublished), nearly all with corrections and variant readings, some present in several different copies, two in apparently...
Dates: c 1790-1819
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections