John Strang

John Strang (10 February 1795 – 8 December 1863), born in Glasgow, was a writer and traveller; later in life he had a career in civic affairs in the city. Life Strang was the son of a wine merchant in Glasgow. He received a liberal education, and his studies particularly included French and German. When he was fourteen his father died, and in due course he inherited the business, for which he had little interest. In 1817 he spent some time in France and Italy, which gave him a liking for continental travel. When at home, he began to contribute to periodicals tales and poems translated from French and German. His youthful translations from the German of E. T. A. Hoffmann and others, were collected into a volume, and this introduced him to men of letters in London and in France and Germany. Having artistic as well as literary tastes, Strang sketched some of the outstanding features of Old Glasgow. In 1831 his pamphlet Necropolis Glasguensis appeared, advocating the site of a new garden cemetery; this eventually became the Glasgow Necropolis. In that year Strang made a long tour of Germany, and from there he wrote many letters which were subsequently published. He became editor in 1832 of The Day, a short-lived daily literary paper, to which he contributed articles. He was a regular contributor to the Scots Times from 1826 to 1831, and a literary critic for The Scotsman from 1832 to 1833.