PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION, 



John Wilson was, confessedly, the greatest magazine writer 

 of his time. From the establishment of Blackwood? s Maga- 

 zirie, to the autumn of 1852, his pen was almost exclusively 

 employed upon that periodical. Two or three volumes of 

 prose fiction, and an " Essay on Burns," for an edition of the 

 peasant-poet's works, were all that Wilson wrote outside of 

 " Maga," until he closed with the final number of the " Dies 

 Boreales." 



In the Magazine, however, his hand was to be seen, and 

 sometimes felt, almost every month during the thirty-five 

 years of his connection with it. His genius was as abundant 

 as his industry was tireless. The volumes which have been 

 selected from his writings in Blackwood, three of " The Re- 

 creations of Christopher North," and five of the " JSToctes 

 Ambrosianae," imperfectly represent what he supplied. He 

 was not only the best, but also the most fruitful of con- 

 tributors. 



If a man's life be written by a near relative, there usually 

 is the disadvantage, that such a biographer has a natural 

 tendency to take a rose-tinted view of personal character and 

 action, — to write rather an eulogium than a fair record and a 

 just estimate. This, independent of other causes, is mainly 

 because of not taking an outside view of the departed ; of 

 not seeing him as he was seen by the world. Yet, of the 

 five best literary biographies in our language (Boswell's John- 

 son, Crabbe's Life by his son, Moore's Byron, Lockhart's Scott, 

 and Pierre M. Irving's Memoir of Washington Irving), three 

 have been written by near relatives. 



The present biography of John Wilson, by his daughter, 

 is worthy, from its fairness and fulness, of a place by the 

 others. Indeed, from Johnson to Wilson and Irving, as re- 

 lated in this series, the whole history of British literature, 

 during one hundred and fifty years, may be found. 



A loving daughter, solicitous for her father's reputation, 

 Mrs Gordon writes of him with admirable imoartialitv. He 



