Hugh Miller was born in 1802 to Harriet Wright, the young Highland wife of a local shipmaster, from whom he took his name. His father died when Miller was just five years old and he was raised in the small harbour town of Cromarty in the north of Scotland by his mother who was reputed to possess the second sight and to have passed to her son the wealth of superstitious folklore and traditional tales which would later mark much of his writing and belief. Resisting the constraints of the parish schoolroom, Miller was largely self-educated having mastered the classics, European philosophy and Romantic literature by the age of fourteen. Yet despite his precocious intelligence, Miller rejected the opportunity of a University education, choosing instead to enter into the labouring life of a…
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Citation: Lunan, Lyndsay. "Hugh Miller". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 January 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3119, accessed 25 November 2024.]
