Richardson presents paper at Oxford University

COLUMBUS, Miss. -- Mississippi University for Women Eudora Welty Professor of English Thomas Richardson was among approximately 40 scholars from all over the world who recently presented papers at the 10th James Hogg Society Conference at Balliol College, Oxford University.

Dr. Richardson presented his paper titled "Maga, Ebony, and the Redoubted Ettrick Shepherd."

The James Hogg Society has been in existence for about 20 years and is dedicated to the study of the early 19th century Scottish writer.

"Hogg was a shepherd and writing was his secondary occupation. He wrote poetry and fiction, collected a lot of traditional Scottish songs and edited a journal called The Spy," Richardson said. "He did a lot of writing while he was tending to his sheep."

The University of Edinburgh Press is publishing the "Collected Works of James Hogg." Richardson's volume, "Contributions to Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine," is tentatively scheduled for publication in 2004.

Richardson has been studying the subject for about five years and his research has taken him to the National Library of Scotland.

"It's been an interesting project," he said. "One of the difficulties is many of Hogg's works were published anonymously. Some were signed but actually written by others; some were not signed at all. Determining what was Hogg's and what was not has been a challenge."

He has started his next project, a biography of Scottish author John Lockhart. He wrote a biographical essay on Lockhart, which will be published by Oxford University Press in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, also due in 2004.

Richardson became interested in Scottish literature during a fellowship to study at the University of Edinburgh.

"I took a course in Scottish literature. The connection I found to Southern literature really interested me."

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