The Surgeon's Daughter was written in 1827 - one of the six hard years of the great struggle that ended Scott's history. His wife died in 1826, and that year had already seen the catastrophe of the three publishing houses in which he was so terribly involved.

Many things in the character and manners of Mr. Gideon Gray of Middlemas, in the tale of The Surgeon's Daughter (says Scott's biographer Lockhart), "were considered at the time by Sir Walter's neighbors in Tweedside as copied from Dr. Ebenezer Clarkson of Selkirk... A true picture - a portrait from the life, of Scott's hard-riding, benevolent, and sagacious old friend, to all the country dear."

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), began his career writing narrative poetry, and later re-launched his career as a novelist. Deriving most of his material from his native Scotland, its history and its legends, Scott invented and mastered what we know today as the historical novel.