author
James Duncan
1804–1861
A Scottish naturalist with a gift for making insects and other creatures vivid to ordinary readers, he helped bring nineteenth-century natural history into popular print. His books on butterflies, moths, beetles, and other subjects became part of the widely read Naturalist’s Library series.
1 Audiobook
Foreign Butterflies
by James Duncan
About the author
Born in 1804, he was educated in Edinburgh and at first followed his family into the Scottish church. He later left that path and turned to literary and publishing work, including helping prepare an index to the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
He is best remembered as a naturalist and science writer. He worked with James Wilson on Entomologia Edinensis and wrote several volumes for William Jardine’s Naturalist’s Library, especially on insects such as butterflies, moths, and beetles.
His writing helped make natural history more approachable for general readers in the nineteenth century. He died in 1861, leaving behind a body of work that linked careful observation with lively popular science.