author

David Alec Wilson

1864–1933

Best remembered for his studies of Thomas Carlyle, this Scottish writer also brought a civil servant’s eye for detail to tales of India and to the satirical fantasy Modern Lilliput. His work moves between literary biography, travel-and-animal storytelling, and speculative fiction in a way that still feels unusual.

1 Audiobook

Anecdotes of Big Cats and Other Beasts

Anecdotes of Big Cats and Other Beasts

by David Alec Wilson

About the author

Born in Glasgow in 1864, David Alec Wilson was a Scottish civil servant and author. Reliable reference sources describe him as having spent much of his working life in India, and note that he died in 1933.

Wilson is chiefly associated with his writings on Thomas Carlyle, a subject to which he devoted a large part of his career. Contemporary reference material also identifies him as a graduate of the University of Glasgow and a barrister, which helps explain the scholarly, argumentative cast of his literary work.

For fiction readers, he is especially notable for Modern Lilliput (1924), described by The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction as a lost-race tale with satirical touches and advanced technology. He also wrote Anecdotes of Big Cats and Other Beasts, a collection that draws on wildlife and hunting stories connected with India.