WILSON, John, Scottish author, best known by his pseudonym it ER Nuersi'; h. Paisley, 18 May 1785; d. Edinburgh, 3 April 1854. He was educated at Glasgow University and Magdalen College, Oxford, and while at Oxford was noted for his skill in boating, cricketing and other athletic sports. Having at 21 come into a large fortune, he purchased the property of F.:11eray, on Winder mere, and retired there to live at his ease, writing poetry. Here he became closely asso ciated with Wordsworth, Southey, 1k Quincey and Coleridge. In 1812 he wrote the once famed 'Isle of Palms.' Another poem in dra matic form, 'The City of the Plague' (1816), was still more successful; but is now for gotten. At this time Wilson suffered reverses of fortune through fraudulent speculation of an uncle and it became necessary for him to earn his livelihood. In 1817 he went to Edin burgh and together with J. G. Lockhart (q.v.), !ecame connected with Blackwood's Magazine. His fame with posterity rests on his prose writings and more especially his contributions to this famed Tory organ. Among the numer ous papers furnished by Wilson may be men tioned those celebrated ones on fishing, shooting and kindred pursuits produced under the well known sobriquet of *Christopher North' and above all his renowned 'Noctes Ambrosiame,' a series of conversations on literary and general subjects, supposed to take place at certain con sisial meetings held in Ambrose's Tavern by the contributors to the Afagazinc and since reprinted separately. In 1820 he obtained the
chair of moral philosophy iu the University of Edinburgh, a post he occupied with credit for 31 years. In 1822 to 1824 he published three prose works of fiction, 'Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life); 'The Foresters' ; and 'The Trials of Margaret Lyndsay,' which are marked by pathos and beauty of description, but arc far from being faithful transcripts of human nature, and degenerate at times into mawkish sentimentality. He resigned his professorship in 1851, and a government pension of 1.300 per annum was bestowed upon him. There is an incomplete edition of his works by Ferrier (12 vols., 1855-58), and a separate edition of the 'Nodes' by R. S. Mackenzie (5 vols., 1866). Consult 'Memoir' by his daughter, Mrs. Gordon (2 vols., Edinburgh 1862); Saintshury, 'Essays in English Literature' (London 1890) ; Mrs. Oliphant, 'William Blackwood and His Sons' (1897); Douglas, 'The Blackwood Group' (1897); Winchester, C. T., °John Wilson' (in 'Group of English Essayists of the Early Nineteenth Century,' New York 1910).