Alexander Balfour (1767-1829) - Poet and Novelist
He was born on 1st ofMarch, 1767 in the parish of Monikie near Forfar. For a number of
years he was a successful merchant in Arbroath but he was made bankrupt in 1815, when he moved to Edinburgh to become a clerk in the publishing house of William Blackwood. He was stricken with paralysis in 1819 and died on 12th September 1829. Among his works are the sentimental novels Campbell (1819), The Farmer's Three Daughters (1822) and The Smuggler's Cave (1823), and a collection of
poems Contemplation and Other Poems (1820). His memoir, Weeds and Wildflowers, was edited by David Macbeth Moir.
Works: Campbell, or the Scottish Probationer (1819);
Contemplation and Other Poems (1820);
The Farmer's Three Daughters (1822); The Smuggler's Cave (1823);
Characters, and Other Tales (1825);
Highland Man (1826);
D. M. Moir, ed., Weeds and Wildflowers (1830);
King Robert Bruce's Breakfast (1835),
The Old Maid and the Widow (1835).
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