John Galt edited Alexander Graydon’s Memoirs of a Life Chiefly Passed in Pennsylvania Within the Last Sixty Years. which was published in January 1822 in Edinburgh by William Blackwood. It had first been published in America and was a memoir by Alexander Graydon (1752-1818), an American writer who had fought against Britain during the American Revolution. Graydon wrote mostly about his life and experiences, and his work was published in many journals of the time.
Galt’s edition received a very unfavourable review by the Quarterly Review (also known as the London Quarterly Review) which had previously given extremely negative comments of John Galt’s own work. John Wilson Croker (1780-1857), at one time editor of the Quarterly Review was particularly known for slating Galt and his writing. The review for the Memoirs reads -
“He [Galt] now appears as the editor and eulogist of these
Memoirs, which – not withstanding his high and solemn praise, both of their
matter and manner – we venture to pronounce to be in matter almost worthless,
and in manner wholly contemptible. We
scarcely remember to have met with an emptier pretender to literature, or a
grosser apostate in politics.”
The writer goes on –
“We can honestly assure Mr Galt – without overrating his talents and taste in the least – that he is himself capable of adding a thousand times more lustre to the English language than the author of such an absurd farrago as he has here thought proper to reprint.”
Galt had a keen interest in America. During the time he worked both in Greenock Custom House and for local firms Miller & Co and Robert Ewing, he would have been aware of how the relationship between the two countries could affect trade. In 1820 he worked for claimants seeking compensation for losses they had sustained during the British/American War of 1812-1815. He dedicated his edition of Graydon’s book to Richard Rush (1780-1859) who was the American Ambassador to Britain from 1818 to 1825.
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| Richard Rush - American Ambassador in Britain |
In his dedication, Galt writes –
“It is remarkable that a production so rich in the various excellencies of style, description, and impartiality, should not have been known to the collectors of American books in this country, especially as it is perhaps the best personal narrative which has yet appeared relative to the history of that great conflict which terminated in establishing the independence of the United States.”
