Background
David Masson was born on December 2, 1822, in Aberdeen, the son of William Masson, a stone-cutter, and his wife Sarah Mather.
David Masson was born on December 2, 1822, in Aberdeen, the son of William Masson, a stone-cutter, and his wife Sarah Mather.
Masson was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and at Marischal College, University of Aberdeen. Intending to enter the Church, he proceeded to Edinburgh University, where he studied theology under Dr. Thomas Chalmers, with whom he remained friendly until the latter's death in 1847.
However, abandoning his project of the ministry, he returned to his native city to undertake the editorship of the Banner, a weekly paper devoted to the advocacy of Free Kirk principles. After two years he resigned this post and went back to the capital, bent upon pursuing a purely literary career. There he wrote a great deal, contributing to Fraser's Magazine, Dublin University Magazine (in which appeared his essays on Chatterton) and other periodicals. In 1847 he went to London, where he found wider scope for his energy and knowledge. He was secretary (1851 - 1852) of the "Society of the Friends of Italy. " In 1852 he was appointed professor of English literature at University College, London, in succession to H. Clough, and from 1858 to 1865 he edited the newly established Macmillan's Magazine. In 1865 he was selectedfor the chair of rhetoric and English literature at Edinburgh, and during the early years of his professorship actively promoted the movement for the university education of women. In 1879 he became editor of the Register of the Scottish Privy Council, and in 1893 was appointed Historiographer Royal for Scotland. Two years later he resigned his professorship. His magnum opus in his Life of Milton in Connexion with the History of His Own Time in six volumes, the first of which appeared in 1858 and the last in 1880. He also edited the library edition of Milton's Poetical Works (3 vols. , 1874), and De Quincey's Collected Works (14 vols. , 1889 - 1890). Among his other publications are Essays, Biographical and Critical (1856, reprinted with additions, 3 vols. , 1874), British Novelists and their Styles (1859), Drummond of Hawthornden (1873), Chatterton (1873) and Edinburgh Sketches (1892).
David Masson died on October 6, 1907.
David Mather Masson who held chairs in English Literature at University College, London, and then at Edinburgh, is perhaps best known for his Life of Milton, the first volume of which appeared the same year as his British Novelists and their Styles, the work from which this extract is taken.
David Masson was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Royal Scottish Academy.
The Masson Hall of Residence (now demolished) in the Grange was named after him.
(This work has been selected by scholars as being cultural...)
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
David Masson was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Royal Scottish Academy.
David Masson was married to Rosaline Orme, they had two children.
