author
Alexander Smith
1829–1867
A self-taught Scottish poet and essayist, he rose from factory work to sudden literary fame in the 1850s with A Life Drama. His writing blends ambition, feeling, and vivid scenes of place, and he is still remembered for poems like "Glasgow" and for the travel prose of A Summer in Skye.
4 Audiobooks
Dreamthorp : A book of essays written in the country
by Alexander Smith
Poems
by Alexander Smith
A summer in Skye, Volume 1 (of 2)
by Alexander Smith
A summer in Skye, Volume 2 (of 2)
by Alexander Smith
About the author
Born in Kilmarnock and raised in Paisley and Glasgow, Alexander Smith came from a working-class family and trained in textile pattern design, following his father into the trade. He had little formal higher education, but read widely on his own and began writing poetry while working, building the kind of literary life that seemed far beyond his circumstances.
His breakthrough came with A Life Drama in 1853, a book that made him famous almost overnight and linked him with the so-called Spasmodic School of Victorian poetry. He later worked as secretary to the University of Edinburgh, and alongside poetry he wrote essays and prose that many readers have found especially lasting, including the well-loved A Summer in Skye.
Smith died in 1867 while still in his thirties, leaving behind a career that was brief but striking. Today he is often remembered as much for the path he took—from industrial labor to literary success—as for the rich, emotional energy of his poems and the graceful observation in his essays.