title: Alexander Whitelaw (editor)
text: # Alexander Whitelaw (editor)
  
  Alexander Whitelaw (1803–1846) was a Scottish editor and writer.
  
  ## Life
  
  Whitelaw was born in Glasgow, and became an assistant to Robert Watt in the compilation of Bibliotheca Britannica. He later was a journalist and poet. Hired by the publishers Blackie, he edited illustrated books; he also edited the Popular Encyclopedia or Conversations Lexicon, which appeared from 1834 to 1842.
  
  ## Edited works
  
  * The Casquet of Literary Gems (1828)
  * The Republic of Letters (1833)
  * Works of Robert Burns, 2 vols., 1843–4
  * The Book of Scottish Song (1844)
  * The Book of Scottish Ballads (1845)
  