Lines Written on a Summer Evening - A Collection of Poems by Alexander Wilson

I will soon be publishing a collection of poems by Alexander Wilson. He was a weaver, ornithologist and poet from Paisley. He was born in 1766, so he was contemporary with Robert Burns and Robert Tannahill. Even though he only recieved five years of formal education, Wilson had a strong love for poetry. Some of his poetry was satirical, focusing on the owners of Paisley's mills, and high lighting the conditions that were faced by those working in the mills. This led to Wilson being arrested.

Before he was put in jail, he was forced to publically burn some of his work. After he was released from prison, he emmigrated to America, taking one of his nephews with him. There weren't many oppertunities for weavers in America, which forced Wilson to look for work elsewhere. He ended up taking up teaching possitions in the Philadelphia area.

It was during this time that he developed his interest in ornithology. This saw Wilson travelling through what existed of the USA at that time, recording what birds he came across, and illistrating them as he went. This work was what became the book, American Ornithology, which stretched to nine volumes. Unfortunatly, Wilson died in 1813, a year before the last volume of Armerican Ornithlogy was published. Because of the work that Wilson carried out, he became known as the Father of American Ornithology. After his death, he was buried in the Goria Dei cemetary in Philidelphia.

The collection that I will be publishing, will featuring his poems and it will be available to buy from Amazon. I am also looking into finding outlets in Paisley, where copies of the collection will be available from.The photo at the bottom of this blog is going to be the front cover of the collection, and it features one of Wilson's illistration from American Ornithology. The slight mistakes on the back cover have been fixed and it is nearly ready to go. I am hoping that it will be getting published soon.