J. M. D. (John Miller Dow) Meiklejohn

Born in Edinburgh and educated first at his father’s school, he went on to study at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated M.A. and earned distinction in classics. He later built a varied career as an academic, journalist, and writer, becoming especially well known for educational books designed for students.

Alongside his teaching and journalism, he wrote widely on English language and literature. Many readers know him for concise, approachable surveys such as A Brief History of the English Language and Literature, while others remember him for producing an English translation of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason at a notably young age.

Reference sources consistently describe him as a Scottish educationist and author of schoolbooks, though some disagree on whether he was born in 1830 or 1836. Because the readily available biographical sources are not fully consistent on that point, it is safest to say that he lived in the nineteenth century and died in 1902.