Effingham Wilson

Background

Wilson was born at Ravensworth in the North Riding of Yorkshire, one of at least five sons to Joseph Wilson (born c1734) and his wife Jane Hutchinson.

Career

His main interests were in economics and politics, but he also published poetry. Some of his relations had farmed under the Earl of Effingham, which resulted in Wilson"s distinctive Christian name. "His earliest years were most happily passed in the neighbourhood of the place of his birth" according to his biography.

A keen phrenologist, he owned the skull of the murderer Eugene Aram, having taken the head from the gibbet where the murderer hung, and was assisted in the task by Wilson.

A strong advocate of freedom of the press, Wilson published material which other publishers found too politically dangerous, including works by Jeremy Bentham, whose utilitarian tendencies he shared. Other publications included works by William Godwin, Benjamin Disraeli and Robert Owen.

After having been a passenger on the first train into London he founded Railway Magazine, the first railway-themed trade journal. Wilson also published poetry, and was the first publisher of both Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning.

He also published Thomas Campbell and was an original publisher of William Hazlitt.

In 1830 Wilson published Tennyson"s Poems Chiefly Lyrical which contained "Claribel", "The Kraken", "The Dying Swan" and "Mariana", which later took their place among Tennyson"s most celebrated poems. The publication brought Tennyson to the notice of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, among others In 1848 Wilson wrote and published a pamphlet entitled A House for Shakespeare in which he proposed the creation of a national theatre company.

This inspired the foundation of the Royal National Theatre.

His proposal was supported by Henry Irving, Charles Dickens and Matthew Arnold among others His correspondences included John Stuart Mill and Charles Dickens.

Connections

Friend:

Walter Bagehot