ABSTRACT
In 1773, Fergusson reached the height of his poetic career. He had, by this point, cultivated a secure position in Scotland’s literary marketplace through his artful presentation of his reading public’s concerns. After two years as ‘house poet’ at Ruddiman’s Weekly Magazine, he had developed a confident literary persona. He had become a poetic spokesman for the people of Edinburgh and, arguably, for the people of Scotland. The Magazine was his own publishing platform, but it was increasingly occupied by pieces by others which made reference to the poet and his success. In 1773, his twenty-third year and the most intensely fruitful period of his creative life, Fergusson would continue to publish an astonishing number of poems in the Magazine, but he would also print three independent pieces, giving a clear indication of his growing literary self-assurance. In addition to the appearance of his collection of Scots vernacular and English language works, Poems, 1773 also saw Fergusson publish ‘Auld Reikie’ in pamphlet form, as well as ‘A Poem to the Memory of John Cunningham’, of which more in the subsequent chapter. He no longer relied solely on the Magazine’s patronage: he was now a poet of sufficient stature to autonomously print and publish for financial profit and literary prestige.
