Wilson, James Grant

Wilson, James Grant, 1832–1914, American biographer and man of letters, b. Scotland. He was brought to the United States in 1833. After journalistic work in Chicago and service in the Union army in the Civil War, he settled in New York, as a writer and editor principally concerned with biography. With John Fiske he edited Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography (6 vol., 1886–89; revised with supplementary volume, 1898–99). His other works included a biography of U.S. Grant and its revisions, compilations of military biographies, and editions of the poetry of Bryant and of Fitz-Greene Halleck.