Is it not strange that at a time when we have lost our Princes, our Parliament, our independent Government… that we shou’d really be the People most distinguish’d for Literature in Europe?

In 1757, the Scottish philosopher David Hume wrote of a rather peculiar phenomenon. Scotland, despite losing most trappings of its independence between 1603, when the English and Scottish crowns combined, and 1707, when Scotland’s parliament was dissolved, found its voice, quite literally, in the period after. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries ushered in the golden age of Scottish literature.

And while those times have never left (JK Rowling, for instance, wrote much of Harry Potter here, using sights from all over Edinburgh as inspiration), the city and country honor their great writers of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through monuments, festivals, and, just off Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, the Writers’ Museum.

The Writers’ Museum is housed in Lady Stair’s House, an 1892 mansion that has no connection whatsoever to the writers whose lives are showcased by the museum. It is situated on Makars’ Court, which has become something of a literary monument, with quotations in English and Gaelic by some of Scotland’s most famous authors inscribed in some of the pavement stones. Makar means author or writer, so it is an appropriate name, and the court itself was dedicated roughly 100 years after the museum, in 1997. (This also predates Edinburgh’s 2004 selection as UNESCO’s first ever City of Literature.)

The Writers’ Museum focuses on three authors (well, two authors and a poet) who represent the literary tradition here better than anyone else, with rooms dedicated to the lives of each. They are Sir Walter Scott, Robert Burns, and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Sir Walter Scott was born here in Edinburgh in 1771. Coming from a fairly well-to-do family, he had the financial freedom to pursue a career in writing, although he tended more toward poetry at the start following some harsh criticism from friends of the first few chapters of his novel Waverley. But his successes as a poet, capturing the spirit of the Scottish highlands, emboldened him, and his premier novel was published in 1814. This would begin a rapid succession of well-received historical works based in Scotland, including Rob Roy in 1817 and Mid-Lothian in 1818.

In 1819, Scott published Ivanahoe, switching from Scottish lore to a traditional English historical novel taking place during the era of Norman and Saxon fighting (with Robin Hood making an appearance). This, by the way, is the only work of Sir Walter’s that I’ve read, as it was required reading in AP English Literature back in high school. For the record, I loved it.

In 1825, a banking collapse in the UK caused the corresponding collapse of the Ballantyne printing business, of which Scott was the sole partner, plunging him into debt. Despite offers from friends – and even royalty – to help, he wished to write his way back to prosperity. Despite more rapid novels being published, he died still in debt in 1832.

After his death, a competition was held to design a monument for him. The result is a huge gothic tower (apparently the second largest monument to a writer after one to Jose Marti in Havana) that towers over Edinburgh’s Princes Street. It is climbable for a fee, but I admire the 200 foot tall edifice from below.

Robert Burns was born in 1759, and though he only lived to the age of 37, he is known as the national poet of Scotland, writing in the Scots dialect as well as in English. Best known for Auld Lang Syne, sung all over the world on New Year’s Eve, his poetry captures the soul of what it means to be Scottish. This stands in contrast to his irregular schooling and a career spent as a laborer and surveyor.

In 1790, after some success as a poet and collaborator, Tam O’ Shanter was published. Widely considered Burns’ masterpiece, this narrative poem describes a Scottish farmer (Tam is short for Thomas) and his interactions with some mythological and religious symbolism, like a devil playing bagpipes.

After his death in 1796, his widow Jean Armour maintained possession of his belongings and body. But after her death, his body was transferred to a new mausoleum, and in doing so was exhumed and a cast was made of his skull. Three copies were said to have been made, one of which is on display here at the Writers’ Museum.

Robert Burns is honored all over Scotland. Here in Edinburgh, a Burns Monument looks out over part of the Royal Mile, and a statue in Leith shows the man himself.

Finally, Robert Louis Stevenson, by far the most recent of the three icons. Born in Edinburgh in 1850, Stevenson was inspired by travel. His early works were basically travel guides, things like his 1879 Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes or Across the Plains, written in 1880 about a trip from New York to California.

But it was a series of novels written in the 1880s for which RLS, as he was known to his contemporaries, would become famous. Written largely while he was bedridden in Westbourne, in England, Stevenson published Treasure Island in 1883, and in 1886 both Kidnapped and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. These three novels would make his fortune.

Robert Louis Stevenson died in 1894 of a stroke at his home in Samoa, after apparently asking his wife, “Does my face look strange?” He was buried in Samoa, by natives who adored him and revered him as a local hero.

Of the three, his Edinburgh monument is by far the simplest, a bare stone in Princes Street Gardens bearing the RLS initials.

In all, it should take only an hour – if that – to see everything at the Writers’ Museum. The artifacts are interesting, and some of the quotations provided by the three famous Scots are fun, but there is not a ton there beyond those and the basic biographies of each.

But the spirit of writers in Edinburgh can be seen far beyond these walls. Take a bit of time and see the Treasures Room at the Scottish National Library for some amazing first editions. Or admire the tomb of David Hume at Old Carlton Cemetery. Take a Harry Potter tour, or one featuring the sights of Outlander, for a more modern approach. The opportunities are immense, and the reward greater.

While the sights of Edinburgh are incredible, it would be a mistake to visit this historic city and not honor its writers. Whether you read any of their works, see their artifacts at the Writers’ Museum, or just marvel at their monuments and tombs, the spirit of literature is sure to infect – positively – your journey.

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