Simon Wilkin was an English publisher literary scholar and naturalist whose main interest was entomology.
Background
He was the second of the three children of William Wilkin Wilkin (1762–1799), a Norfolk gristmiller, and Cecilia Lucy Wilkin (d 1796), daughter of William Jacomb of London. When his father died Wilkin moved to Norwich to live with his guardian, Joseph Kinghorn, who educated him.
Career
Wilkin lost his inherited wealth in 1811 when the paper mill in which he was a partner failed, and in 1832 his guardian"s death was another financial disaster. Bankruptcy forced the sale of his insect collection to the Zoological Society of London. He was then able to establish a printing and publishing business in Norwich.
He published the work of Harriet Martineau, Amelia Opie, George Borrow, and William Taylor.
Wilkin compiled an edition of Sir Thomas Browne (1836. Reissued in 1852) for which he researched Browne"s correspondence in the British Museum and Bodleian Library.
Membership
He was a Fellow of the Linnean Society, and a member of the Wernerian Society of Edinburgh.