Hector Macpherson

Born in Glasgow on October 16, 1851, he grew up largely in the Vale of Leven and began his working life in a dye-works office before turning to journalism. From the 1870s onward he built a career as a writer and editor, eventually becoming well known in Scottish literary and public life.

He published books, pamphlets, and articles on an unusually broad range of subjects, including Scottish history, religion, political thought, and biography. Among his better-known works are studies of Herbert Spencer and Thomas Carlyle, and he also wrote on Scotland's intellectual and religious traditions. That mix of ideas, history, and public argument gives his writing a lively, wide-angle feel.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1924 and died in Edinburgh on October 17, 1924, the day after his seventy-third birthday. Today he is remembered as a versatile, energetic writer whose books capture many of the debates and interests of late 19th- and early 20th-century Scotland.