Bio: John Galt (1779 - 1839) Born in Irvine, Scotland, son of John Galt (1750-1817), shipmaster and merchant. The family moved to Greenock when Galt was 10 ,where they lived for the next decade. In 1804 Galt moved to London and attempted to establish himself in business without much success. After a period of travel in Mediterranean Europe he became acquainted with Lord Byron and was the author of Byron's first biography. Initially his time as an author was spent writing plays, poetry and biographies before concentrating his efforts on becoming a novelist. He wrote 13 novels, which included a group known as the 'Tales of the West' which described Scottish country life in Ayrshire. These works amount to an accurate picture of life and social change in Scotland around that period and include notably The Ayrshire Legatees (1821), Annals of the Parish (1821), and The Provost (1822) He became secretary of the Canada company in 1824 and the Annals and Provost were published in French as Les Chroniques écossaises. After several periods in Canada where he founded the town of Guelph (1827) in Ontario and the town of Galt is named after him, Galt returned to his native Scotland in 1834 where he remained until his death in Greenock in 1839.