{"id":185,"date":"2014-10-13T18:03:49","date_gmt":"2014-10-13T17:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/?p=185"},"modified":"2015-03-31T14:36:49","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T13:36:49","slug":"the-not-so-anonymous-mr-macintosh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/?p=185","title":{"rendered":"The not so anonymous Mr Macintosh"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Untitled.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-187 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Untitled.png\" alt=\"European Magazine\" width=\"598\" height=\"363\" srcset=\"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Untitled.png 598w, https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Untitled-300x182.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 598px) 100vw, 598px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Of the various reviews of Macintosh\u2019s <em>Travels<\/em> in the months following its publication in 1782, that which appeared in the newly established <em><a href=\"http:\/\/bsuva.org\/bsuva\/euromag\/\">European Magazine<\/a><\/em> is unusual in one specific respect: it contains a detailed biographical sketch of the book\u2019s supposedly anonymous author.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>European Magazine<\/em> had been established at the beginning of 1782 by the Scottish journalist James Perry (1756\u20131821) as a competitor to the more venerable <em>Gentleman\u2019s Magazine<\/em>. Given that other contemporary reviews of <em>Travels<\/em> speculated at some length as to its unknown author, quite how the <em>European Magazine<\/em> knew who Macintosh was (and, indeed, knew <em>so<\/em> much about him) is uncertain.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_189\" style=\"width: 535px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/mw39896.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-189\" class=\"wp-image-189 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/mw39896.jpg\" alt=\" James Perry (1756\u20131821)\" width=\"525\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/mw39896.jpg 525w, https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/mw39896-196x300.jpg 196w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 525px) 100vw, 525px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-189\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Perry (1756\u20131821). National Portrait Gallery, D5511.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.co.uk\/books?id=v84PAAAAQAAJ&amp;pg=PA365\">Anecdotes of the Author<\/a>\u201d which follows the review could only have come directly, we might assume, from Macintosh himself or from John Murray, so rich is that sketch in terms of biographical detail. It is possible that Macintosh and Perry were acquaintances (although a first glance indicates that Macintosh\u2019s book was not in Perry\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.co.uk\/books?id=h04VAAAAQAAJ\">personal library<\/a>). In any event, it is perhaps more interesting to speculate about why Macintosh or Murray would wish to subvert the anonymity of <em>Travels<\/em> by revealing its authorship in this way.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever its origin or intended purpose, the sketch was a flattering one and\u00a0positioned Macintosh as a reliable and truthful witness. It concludes: \u201cMr. Macintosh is a person of very genteel appearance, and polite address, and his heart is warm and susceptible of friendship\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Of the various reviews of Macintosh\u2019s Travels in the months following its publication in 1782, that which appeared in the newly established European Magazine is unusual in one specific respect: it contains a detailed biographical sketch of the book\u2019s supposedly anonymous author. The European Magazine had been established at the beginning of 1782 by the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=185"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":276,"href":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions\/276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}