- John Scott (editor)
John Scott (1783 –
27 February ,1821 ), editor and publisher. He edited several liberal newspapers: the "Statesman ", whichLeigh Hunt had recently founded; the "Stamford News ", published byJohn Drakard ; "Drakard's Paper" (a London edition of this), which he renamed "The Champion"; and the most notable, theLondon Magazine , which he revived, as a monthly, in January 1820.Under his direction, the magazine included works by such luminaries as Wordsworth,
Charles Lamb , de Quincey,John Clare , Tom Hood, Carlyle, Keats,Leigh Hunt , and Hazlitt. He also agreed to write a third of the magazine himself, which he did mostly under pseudonyms.He attended
Aberdeen Grammar School , as didLord Byron , who was some years younger; he spent 1795-8 atMarischal College , but left without graduating. When Byron published an account of his marriage in 1816, Scott called this publication indelicacy; Leigh Hunt quarreled with him over thisHe died as the result of a duel, one of the side effects of the
Cockney School controversy.John Gibson Lockhart had been abusing many of Scott's contributors in "Blackwood's Magazine " (under a pseudonym ("Z"), as was then common). In May 1820, Scott began a series of counter-articles, which provoked Lockhart into calling him "a liar and a scoundrel". In February 1820, Lockhart's London agent, Jonathan Henry Christie, made a provocative statement, and Scott challenged him.They met on
16 February ,1821 , at a farm betweenCamden Town andHampstead . Christie did not fire in the first round, but there was a misunderstanding between the seconds, resulting in a second round. Scott was hit in the abdomen, and died 11 days later. Christie and his second were tried for willful murder and acquitted; the collection for Scott's family was a notable radical cause.References
*Oxford "DNB" "s.v."
External links
*worldcat id|lccn-n85-52501
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