ABSTRACT
Walter Wilson (1781–1847), historian of the dissenting churches, brought out his three-volume Memoirs of the Life and Times of Daniel De Foe in 1830. Like Charles Lamb, whom he consulted in the preparation of this book (see No. 14), Wilson was a former clerk in the India Office. The biography remains an important source for students of Defoe, although it is exceedingly diffuse and frequently sidetracked by Wilson’s ambition to portray Defoe as the staunchest of Nonconformists. Both faults were commonly remarked by reviewers. Yet Wilson’s limitations in construction and in objectivity are largely offset by his knowledge, his sympathetic understanding and his thoroughgoing belief in Defoe as man and writer.
