Now an undeservedly neglected figure, John Wilson was one of the most important magazinists and literary critics of the Romantic period. Writing mainly under the pseudonym of “Christopher North”, he was a mainstay of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine for which he produced numerous articles on various subjects, short stories, perceptive reviews, and his series Noctes Ambrosianae. Wilson was also a poet and writer of fiction whose greatest popular success came with his novels of rural Scottish life. Charismatic and brilliant, but emotionally volatile and capable of lashing out in print, Wilson had long (and sometimes troubled) associations with some of the major writers of his day, most notably Thomas De Quincey, …
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Citation: Higgins, David. "John Wilson". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 October 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4756, accessed 22 November 2024.]
