James Macpherson

James Macpherson
Born	27 October 1736 Ruthven, Inverness-shire, Scotland
Died	17 February 1796 (aged 59) Belville, Inverness-shire, Scotland
Occupation	Poet, translator
Alma mater	Marischal College, University of Aberdeen; University of Edinburgh
Literary movement	Romanticism

James Macpherson (Gaelic: Seumas MacMhuirich or Seumas Mac a' Phearsain; 27 October 1736 – 17 February 1796) was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of epic poems. He was the first Scottish poet to gain an international reputation.

Macpherson was born at Ruthven in the parish of Kingussie in Badenoch, Inverness-shire. In the 1752-3 session, he was sent to King's College, Aberdeen, moving two years later to Marischal College (the two institutions later became the University of Aberdeen); it is also believed that he attended classes at the University of Edinburgh as a divinity student in 1755–6. During his years as a student, he ostensibly wrote over 4,000 lines of verse, some of which was later published, notably The Highlander (1758), a six-canto epic poem, which he attempted to suppress sometime after its publication.

On leaving college, he returned to Ruthven to teach in the school there. At Moffat he met John Home, the author of Douglas, for whom he recited some Gaelic verses from memory. He also showed him manuscripts of Gaelic poetry, supposed to have been picked up in the Scottish Highlands and the Western Isles. Encouraged by Home and others, he produced a number of pieces translated from the Scottish Gaelic, which he reportedly spoke, which he was induced to publish at Edinburgh in 1760 as Fragments of Ancient Poetry collected in the Highlands of Scotland.

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