James Grant Wilson

James Grant Wilson (April 28, 1832 – February 1, 1914) was an American editor, author, bookseller and publisher, who founded the Chicago Record in 1857, the first literary paper in that region. During the American Civil War, he served as a colonel in the Union Army. In recognition of his service, in 1867, he was named brevet brigadier general of volunteers to rank from March 13, 1865. He settled in New York, where he edited biographies and histories, was a public speaker, and served as president of the Society of American Authors and the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society.

Early life James Grant Wilson was born on April 28, 1832, in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of the poet William Wilson and his second wife, Miss Jane Sibbald of Hawick. In infancy, he moved with his family to the United States, where they settled in Poughkeepsie, New York. He had two younger brothers. Wilson was educated in Poughkeepsie at College Hill and continued his studies in languages, music, and drawing under private teachers. In 1855, Wilson embarked on an extended journey, touring Europe and its capitals. Upon his return in 1857, he settled in the growing city of Chicago, Illinois, where he founded the Chicago Record, a journal of art and literature. It was the first literary paper published in that region. His middle brother was killed at Fredericksburg, Virginia, and his youngest brother also served. Before her death in 1904, they had one daughter together:

After his first wife's death in 1904, he married Mary H. Nicholson, the widow of his friend Admiral James William Augustus Nicholson, in 1907.

Wilson died in New York City and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York.

Selected works

Biographical Sketches of Illinois Officers (1862–63) Life of Fitz-Greene Halleck (1869) Sketches of Illustrious Soldiers (1874) Poets and Poetry of Scotland (1876) (in four volumes) Blackie & Son, Edinburgh 1876 Centennial History of the Diocese of New York, 1775-1885 (1886) Bryant and his Friends (1886) Commodore Isaac Hull and the Frigate Constitution (1889)

Love in Letters (1896) Life of General Grant (1897) Thackeray in the United States (two volumes, 1904)