The New International Encyclopædia/Wilson, James Grant

WILSON, James Grant (1832—). An American editor and author, born in New York City. He was educated chiefly by private tutors and through European travel, founded (1857) the Chicago Record, a journal of art and literature, and entered the Union Army as major and left it as brigadier-general (1865). He afterwards lived in New York, was a popular speaker, a frequent contributor to periodicals, president of the Society of American Authors, and, after 1885, of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. He edited Fitz-Greene Halleck's Poems (1868); A Memorial History of the City of New York (4 vols., 1892-93); Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography (6 vols., 1887-89, with John Fiske; vol. vii., 1900); and The Great Commanders Series (18 vols.). His chief books include: Bioqraphical Sketches of Illinois Officers (1862-63); Life of Fitz-Greene Halleck (1869); Sketches of Illustrious Soldiers (1874); Poets and Poetry of Scotland (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); The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1901 (1902); and Thackeray in the United States (1903).