THE POEMS OF OSSIAN, THE SON OF FINGAL. Translated by James Macpherson. A New Edition, Carefully Corrected and Greatly Improved. by Macpherson, James - 1790

Printed by Thomas Lang, No. 21 Church Alley, Philadelphia: ., 1790 pp. [2], vii, [6, 12]-502. Name clipped from title page. Slight loss from a few other leaves. Some age stain. 8vo. 220 mm. XLib bookplate of Lancaster Mechanics' Library Association on front paste down. XLib stamp on title page. Original full leather binding, worn; front board almost detached. Hardbound. Very Good. James Macpherson (1736-1796) was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the 'translator' of the Ossian cycle of epic poems. 'He was the first Scottish poet to gain an international reputation. In 1761 he announced the discovery of an epic on the subject of Fingal (related to the Irish mythological character Fionn mac Cumhaill/Finn McCool) written by Ossian (based on Fionn's son Oisin), and in December he published Fingal, an Ancient Epic Poem in Six Books, together with Several Other Poems composed by Ossian, the Son of Fingal, translated from the Gaelic Language, in musical measured prose. Temora followed in 1763, and a collected edition, The Works of Ossian, in 1765. The authenticity of these so-called translations from the works of a 3rd-century bard was immediately challenged by Irish historians, especially Charles O'Conor, who noted technical errors in chronology and in the forming of Gaelic names, and commented on the implausibility of many of Macpherson's claims, none of which Macpherson was able to substantiate. More forceful denunciations were later made by Dr. Samuel Johnson, who asserted (in A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775) that Macpherson had found fragments of poems and stories, and then woven them into a romance of his own composition. Further challenges and defenses were made well into the nineteenth century, but the issue was moot by then. Macpherson never produced the originals that he claimed existed.' -Wiki. Evans 22633. EVANS1. Hardcover.