William Gilbert (1804-1890) was a British novelist and navalsurgeon, author of several popular fantasy stories. He is perhaps best remembered in modern times, though, as the father of dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836-1911).
The elder William Gilbert spent much of his time as a young man travelling, only settling down in his middle years well after the birth of his son. The family settled in London in 1849, and Gilbert began his writing career.
Gilbert's 1866 book, Magic Mirror, was illustrated by his multitalented son. Among Gilbert's best-known and most popular works were his Innominato tales, published in various magazines, including Argosy, and finally collected in 1867's The Wizard of the Mountain. These concerned a sorceror called the Innominato, or "Nameless," in 13th centuryItaly.
Gilbert and his wife were divorced in 1876; he published little thereafter.
Gilbert's principal work is his treatise on magnetism, entitled De magnete, magneticisque corporibus, et de magno magnete tellure (London, 1600; later editions - Stettin, 1628, 1633; Frankfort, 1629, 1638).
Gilbert's is therefore not merely the first, but the most important, systematic contribution to the sciences of electricity and magnetism.
A posthumous work of Gilbert's was edited by his brother, also called William, from two MSS.
WilliamGilbert (1763-1825?), theosophist, poet and astrologer, is best known as the author of The Hurricane (1796).
Gilbert published this poem in Bristol where he briefly associated with the poets Coleridge, Wordsworth and Southey, who all viewed him and his writing with a mixture of admiration, affection and alarm.
WilliamGilbert, the best place to start if you are new to Gilbert; includes a full biography with many previously unpublished discoveries.
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