About Duncan Campbell Scott
 Duncan Campbell Scott, poet and short story-writer, is one of the major Canadian literary figures of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Scott was a member of a group known as the "Confederation poets" which also included Charles G.D. Roberts, Bliss Carman and Archibald Lampman.
Scott was born in Ottawa in 1862, where he lived for his entire adult life. From his parents, Scott developed a love of literature and of music, and became an accomplished pianist. He obtained his elementary education in Ottawa, attended high school in Smith's Falls, Ontario and junior college in Stanstead, Quebec. In 1879, financial constraints forced an end to Scott's formal education, and, in December of that year, he entered the federal civil service as a clerk in the Department of Indian Affairs. Scott spent his entire career in the same branch of government, working his way up to the position of deputy superintendent of Indian Affairs in 1923, the highest non-elected position possible in his department.
He remained in this post until his retirement in 1932. Scott's career brought him into contact with Native people in isolated settlements in the Canadian wilderness, and he drew upon these experiences in his literary career.
In the early 1880s, Scott pursued his artistic inclinations primarily through music. This changed in 1883 when he became acquainted with Archibald Lampman, who had come to Ottawa to work with the postal service. It was Lampman who encouraged Scott to try his hand at poetry and prose, and Scott found that he had a facility in both. As early as 1887, a story of his was accepted by Scribner's magazine, and in 1888, his second poem appeared in this prestigious American periodical. In the following two decades, Scott's work was frequently published in Canadian and American magazines and newspapers. During 1892 and 1893, Scott collaborated with his friends Archibald Lampman and W.W.Campbell on a weekly column of literary and social commentary entitled "At the Mermaid Inn" for the Globe.
In 1893, Scott privately published his first book The Magic House, and Other Poems. Although his poems were heavily influenced by Romantic and Victorian themes, Scott's facility with language and verse forms was evident, and the book was generally well received. In 1894, he married Belle Warner Botsford, an American concert pianist whom he had met when acting as her accompanist at a recital in Ottawa. Their only child, a daughter, was born in 1895 and died, tragically, at the age of 12.
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