The New International Encyclopædia/Wilson, James Grant

WILSON, (1832&mdash;). 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).