James Wood (encyclopaedist)

James Wood(12 October 1820 – 17 March 1901) was a Scottish writer, editor, andFree Churchminister.^[1]

Life

Born inLeith,Wood studied at theUniversity of Edinburghand was ordained as a minister of theFree Church of Scotland,following theDisruption of 1843.^[1]His admiration forThomas CarlyleandJohn Ruskinmay have contributed to his failure to secure the ministry of a congregation.^[1]Instead, he earned a living as a writer and editor and spent most of his life in Edinburgh.^[1]

Wood is described by P. J. E. Wilson as "that most conscientious of pedants".^[2]

In his anonymousThe Strait Gate(1881), Wood says of himself that he should not be classed with theHigh churchmen,theEvangelicals,or theBroad churchmen.He had "no faith whatsoever" in the first group, "no true conception" of the second, and "a measure of sympathy" with the third, but added "…yet there are drawbacks which make it impossible for me to hail their movement with any warmth."^[3]

Publications

In 1867, Wood'sStories from Greek Mythologywas published in London.^[4]Wood editedNuttall's Standard Dictionary^[5]andThe Nuttall Encyclopaedia.^[5]In 1881, he published anonymouslyThe Strait Gate and Other Discourses, with a Lecture on Thomas Carlyle, by a Scotch Preacher,^[6]^[7]and in 1882 made the authorized translation ofAuguste Barth'sReligions of India.^[8]In 1893, after working on it for three years, he published hisDictionary of Quotations,^[1]later renamed asNuttall's Dictionary of Quotations.^[9]He was also the author ofBagster & Sons'Helps to the Bible^[1]and aCarlyle School Reader.^[1]

References

Sources

Stirling, Hutchison (1902)."Prefatory Note".Sartor Resartus.By Carlyle, Thomas. Wood, James (ed.). Vol. 1. London: J. M. Dent. pp. vii–xii.ISBN 978-1-901843-22-4.Retrieved10 October2016.

Citations

^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^gStirling 1902, pp.vii–viii
^Wilson, P. J. E. (14 January 1984)."Points: Definition of scurvy".British Medical Journal (Clinical Research Edition).288(6411): 152.doi:10.1136/bmj.288.6411.152-g.PMC1443956.
^"The Strait Gate and other discourses; with a Lecture on Thomas Carlyle. By a Scotch Preacher" (review) inThe Preacher's Monthly: a Storehouse of Homiletic Help,Vol. II (London: Lobb and Bertram, 1881),p. 399
^Rev. James Wood,Stories from Greek Mythology(London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1867)
^^a ^bWood, James (1900).The Nuttall Encyclopaedia: Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge.London and New York:Frederick Warne & Co.p. iii.Retrieved10 October2016.
^Stirling 1902, p.ix
^OCLC 57460139
^Auguste Barth,The Religions of India. Authorised Translation by Rev. J. Wood(London: Houghton Mifflin, 1882)
^Shipps, Anthony W. (1990).The Quote Sleuth: A Manual for the Tracer of Lost Quotations.University of Illinois Press. p.26.ISBN 9780252016950.Retrieved10 October2016.