James Hogg (1770 – 21 November 1835) was a Scottish poet and novelist who wrote in both Scots and English.

James Hogg was born in a small farm near Ettrick, Scotland in 1770 and was baptized there on 9 December, his date of birth having never been recorded.[1] His father, Robert Hogg (1729–1820), was a peasant farmer while his mother, Margaret Hogg (née Laidlaw) (1730–1813), was noted for collecting native Scottish ballads.[2][1] James was the second eldest of four brothers, his siblings being William, David, and Robert (from eldest to youngest).[3] Robert and David later emigrated to the United States, while James and William remained in Scotland for their entire lives.[3]

James had little formal education, and became a shepherd, living in grinding poverty, hence his nickname, 'The Ettrick Shepherd'. His employer, James Laidlaw of Blackhouse, seeing how hard he was working to improve himself, offered to help by making books available. Hogg used these to essentially teach himself to read and write (something he had achieved by the age of 14). In 1796 Robert Burns died, and Hogg, who had only just come to hear of him, was devastated by the loss. He struggled to produce poetry of his own, and Laidlaw introduced him to Sir Walter Scott, who asked him to help with a publication entitled The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.