NICHOLS, JOHN (1745-1826), English printer and author, was born at Islington on Feb. 2, 1745. He edited the Gentleman's Magazine from 1778 till his death, and in that periodical, and in his numerous volumes of Anecdotes and Illustrations, he made invaluable contributions to the personal history of English men of letters in the 18th century. He was apprenticed in 1757 to "the learned printer," William Bowyer, who took him into part nership in 1766. On the death of his friend and master in 1777 Nichols published a brief memoir, which afterwards grew into the Anecdotes of William Bowyer and his Literary Friends (i 782) . The Literary Anecdotes of the 28th Century (1812-1815), into which the original work was expanded, forms only a small part of Nichols's production. It was followed by the Illustrations of the Literary History of the 18th Century, consisting of Authentic Memoirs and Original Letters of Eminent Persons, which was begun in 1817 and completed by his son John Bowyer Nichols (1779-1863) in 1858. He died on Nov. 26, 1826.