Jenni Calder

Jenni Calder (née Daiches) (born 1941) is a Scottish literary historian, and arts establishment figure.

Edinburgh based, she has been part of the Scottish literary community for many years. Her teaching and writing cover Scottish, English and American literary and historical subjects.

She has written 28 books on literary and historical subjects, including biographies of Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, George Orwell  and Naomi Mitchison and  books on Scottish history and Scottish emigration. She has a particular research interest in emigration and the Scottish diaspora. She worked at the National Museums of Scotland from 1978 to 2001 and latterly as Head of Museum of Scotland International. In 2003 she helped to organise the National Museums of Scotland's exhibition called 'Trailblazers - the Scots in Canada'. She was president of Scottish PEN, a not-for-profit organisation that champions freedom of expression and literature across borders.

She writes fiction and poetry as Jenni Daiches.

She was formerly married to Angus Calder, and is the daughter of David Daiches a prominent Scottish, Jewish, writer, critic and historian. She was born in the US and spent time in Kenya. Her book Not Nebuchadnezzar is a partly a biography and a  'chronicle of the consuming search for that elusive concept known as 'identity ''. She has spoken out about anti-antisemitism.

On the question of Scottish independence; of 27 Scottish authors whose opinion was sought, Calder was one of only two offering a definite No.

Some works

 * There Must Be a Lone Ranger: The myth and reality of the American Wild West. Hamish Hamilton, 1974
 * Huxley Brave New World and Orwell Nineteen Eighty Four. Edward Arnold, 1976
 * Stevenson and Victorian Scotland. Edinburgh University Press, 1984
 * Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four. Open University, 1988
 * The Wealth of a Nation. Publications Office, Edinburgh, 1989
 * Scotland in Trust: The National Trust for Scotland, 1990
 * Stevenson and Victorian Scotland. Edinburgh University Press, 1984
 * Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four. Open University, 1988
 * The Wealth of a Nation. Publications Office, Edinburgh, 1989
 * Scotland in Trust: The National Trust for Scotland, 1990
 * Scotland in Trust: The National Trust for Scotland, 1990


 * The Story of the Scottish Soldier, 1600-1914. National Museums of Scotland, 1992
 * Enterprising Scot: Scottish Adventure and Achievement. National Museums of Scotland, 1995
 * Scots in the USA. Luath Press, 2006
 * Scots in the USA. Luath Press, 2006

Reviews

 * Clunas, Alexander (1982), review of Stevenson and Victorian Scotland, in Murray, Glen (ed.), Cencrastus No. 8, Spring 1982, pp. 42 & 42,