James Hogg, The Spy; Being a Periodical Paper of Literary Amusement and Instruction

Wendy Hunter (University of Sheffield)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.06: English Writing and Culture of the Romantic Period, 1789-1837.
Vol. editors: Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Daniel Robinson (Widener University), Emily Rohrbach (University of Durham)

Domains

Periodicals

Dates

First circulation or publication 1810 - 1811

Places

Scotland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Didactic
Spy and Espionage

Resources

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The Spy

was an eight-page weekly periodical that ran for fifty two issues from 1 September 1810, each costing four-pence. It was published in Edinburgh by James Robertson, who specialised in producing chapbooks and low priced booklets. He had been approached with the idea of a periodical by James Hogg, the “Ettrick Shepherd”, who had recently moved to Edinburgh with aspirations of becoming a professional literary man. Hogg is best known today for his

Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner

(1824), but an early foretaste of the demonic Gil-Martin is glimpsed in the persona of the “Spy”: “I am wholly intent on the behaviour of other people […] a Spy upon the manners, customs, and particular characters of all ranks of authors in particular”. Gil-Martin had a…

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1175 words

Citation: Hunter, Wendy. "The Spy; Being a Periodical Paper of Literary Amusement and Instruction". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 June 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7814, accessed 24 November 2024.]