Held responsible by some for the early death of John Keats and by others for the duel in which London Magazine editor John Scott was killed, John Gibson Lockhart was so effective a satirist, his scorn so painful, that early in his career he was known as the "Scorpion" to readers of Blackwood's Magazine. He had difficulty outgrowing this reputation, and perhaps he never was free from the taint. Indeed, he added to his stained reputation with the scandalous stories of an adulterous minister and a bloody madman. As the son-in-law of the famous novelist Sir Walter Scott, Lockhart had to find new literary fields for himself. He earned credit for his work as a scholar of Spanish literature and for his sustained good work as editor of the Quarterly Review from 1825 to 1853. Finally he achieved positive success as the biographer of Robert Burns in 1828 and Sir Walter...