John Galt

Who is John Galt?

John Galt (1779 – 1839) was born in Irvine, Scotland, and died at Greenock. He was the author of over 80 books, but is best known for his initiative in forming "The Canada Company" who purchased crown land in Ontario, Canada (then called Upper Canada) and sold it to settlers. Galt was the first Superintendent of the Company, and founded the town of Guelph on April 23, 1827.

From a literary perspective, he is best known for his Scottish novels and stories of middle class small town characters, mostly portrayed in a humourous way in terms of their foibles and self deceptions. He was never financially well off, and wrote many books such as readers, spellers, biographies, children's books, condensed voyages and travels, and innumerable articles for magazines and annuals, in order to gain income for his family. His three sons all settled in Canada, and all attained a level of financial success beyond their father, who was intensely proud of all his sons, especially his youngest, who helped him with his writing after a series of strokes which began in 1832.

He was a man of very high principles, and what I prefer to call "uncommon common sense". A major reason for his lack of success was that he was fairly outspoken and did not always give the "powers that be" the deference which some of them took exception to. Another reason was that he just had too many interests and foci. He was encyclopaedic in his interests, and also in his writings, with opinions on just about everything, from political reform to water supply to Greenock, making Glasgow a deep sea port, or the practical aspects of eliminating slavery in America. His approach to most things was innovative, sometimes a bit far-fetched (he was not a scientist or engineer, so that some of his ideas in these areas were not possible), but almost always the product of an independent, creative mind. He deserves a far more prominent place in British and Canadian history than he has.

Despite the size of these contents, the project is not completed. I hope to add additional titles with full text and images to total about 60 books, and then images only for another 15 to 20. Also planned are the original articles published in magazines and annuals and contemporary critical material on his work. Another area of endeavour is the different textual variants between editions which Galt actually revised, such as the books originally published serially in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. Also possible is the incorporation of manuscript material, both literary and otherwise.

Please give feedback on the usefulness of the site, ways it could be improved, what else should be added, etc. to Tim Sauer tsa@uoguelph.ca

© Tim Sauer. Permission to use the information is given, provided credit is given to me and this source.