Walter Scott was born on August 15, 1771, in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of Walter Scott, an attorney, and Anne Rutherford Scott, a woman with active social and literary interests. Of the couple's twelve children, only five survived infancy, and Walter narrowly escaped an early death himself when, at two years old, he contracted polio, which left him permanently disabled. As a child, he was an avid reader of fairy tales, ballads, Shakespeare, fiction, Asian fables, and folklore. Through visits to his grandfather's farm in the valley of the Tweed River and to the homes of other relatives in the Border country and in the Highlands, Scott developed a superb memory for Scottish gossip, history, legend, song, and folklore. By the age of fourteen, he could recite Scots ballads from memory; this skill combined with his passion for medieval romances, history, and travel books formed the...