Ian Simpson Ross is the biographer of Lord Kames, Smith's patron, and of the Scottish poet William Dunbar, and has edited, with E C Mossner, Smith's correspondence for the Glasgow edition of his works. He is Professor Emeritus of the University of British Columbia.

• 1. Kirkcaldy ; 2. Boyhood ; 3. Glasgow ; 4. The Never to be Forgotten Hutcheson ; 5. Oxford ; 6. A Respectable Auditory ; 7. Lectures on the History of Philosophy and Law ; 8. Called to Glasgow University ; 9. Teacher ; 10. Publishing Scholar and Administrator ; 11. The Making of the Theory of Moral Sentiments ; 12. Criticism of the Theory of Moral Sentiments ; 13. Travelling Tutor ; 14. Transition ; 15. Inquirer into the Wealth of Nations ; 16. The American Crisis and the Wealth of Nations ; 17. Euge! Belle! Dear Mr Smith ; 18. Dialogue with a Dying Man ; 19. Settlement in Edinburgh ; 20. Economic Theorist as Commissioner of Customs ; 21. Literary Pursuits ; 22. Times of Hardship and Distress ; 23. Legacy for Legislators ; 24. The Precariousness of this Life ; 25. The Great Change ; Bibliography

What makes the second edition of The Life of Adam Smith remarkable is that it strives to be two things simultaneously. First, it remains an intellectual biography, following Smith's life year by year and connecting published observations to actual events...The second aim of the book is to absorb the new scholarship into Ross's old narrative...This intellectual biography is as much intellectual as it is biography; it is built on textual scholarship as well as historical narrative.