John Nichol (8 September 1833 – 11 October 1894), was a Scottish literary scholar, academic, writer who served as the first Regius Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Glasgow. He was well known for his drama Hannibal (1873) as well as his biographies of Robert Burns, Lord Byron, and of his friend Thomas Carlyle. He is also well known for his books Tables of European Literature and History (1876) and Tables of Ancient Literature and History (1877).
Early life
Nichol was born on 8 September 1833 in Montrose, Forfarshire (present-day Angus) to Jane Tullis (1809–1850) and John Pringle Nichol, an astronomer and political economist.
John Jr. studied first at Glasgow (1848–55) and then Balliol College, Oxford (1855–9) as a Snell Exhibitioner, graduating with a First-Class degree in Classics, Philosophy and Mathematics. After graduating, Nicholl remained at Oxford as a coach. With Albert Venn Dicey, Thomas Hill Green, Swinburne and others, he formed the Old Mortality Society for discussions on literary matters.
Glasgow
In 1862 he was made Regius Professor of English Literature at Glasgow. He had already made a reputation as an acute critic and a successful lecturer, and his influence at Glasgow was very marked. He visited the United States in 1865, and in 1882 he wrote the article on American literature for the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.
Nichol was long blamed by biographers of the poet Swinburne for leading Swinburne to lose his faith and to alcoholism. Neither charge is true (See Terry L. Meyers, "On Drink and Faith: Swinburne and John Nichol at Oxford". Review of English Studies, ns 55:220 (June 2004), 392–424).
Personal life
On 10 April 1861, Nichol married Jane Stuart Nichol (), the daughter of Henry Glassford Bell.