James Tytler

author

James Tytler

1745–1804

Best remembered as the editor who shaped the second edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica, he also became the first person in Britain to make a manned hot-air balloon ascent. His life was full of restless ambition, odd turns, and more than a little adventure.

1 Audiobook

A Treatise on the Plague and Yellow Fever With an Appendix, containing histories of the plague at Athens in the time of the Peloponnesian War; at Constantinople in the time of Justinian; at London in 1665; at Marseilles in 1720

A Treatise on the Plague and Yellow Fever With an Appendix, containing histories of the plague at Athens in the time of the Peloponnesian War; at Constantinople in the time of Justinian; at London in 1665; at Marseilles in 1720

by James Tytler

About the author

Born in Scotland in 1745, James Tytler worked as an apothecary, writer, translator, and editor. He is most closely linked with the second edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica, a massive project on which he reportedly did much of the writing and editorial labor almost single-handedly.

Tytler is also remembered for his place in aviation history. In 1784, he made a hot-air balloon ascent in Edinburgh, becoming the first person in Britain to fly. That feat helped earn him the nickname "Balloon Tytler" and fixed his name in the history of early aeronautics.

His life, though, was far from smooth. Contemporary accounts describe him as brilliant but eccentric, and his later years were troubled by debt and political difficulties. He eventually emigrated to the United States, where he died in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804.