NICHOLS, JOHN, a writer of literary anecdotes, was born at Islington in 1745, and at the age of twelve became an apprentice to the famous printer William Bowyer. His taste for literature, his industry, and his business talents soon raised him high in the favour of his master. He was taken into partnership in 1766, and succeeded to the entire business in 1777. It was then that the aptitude for curious biographical and topographical research by which he was specially characterized began to appear to the world. In course of time it found full scope in the Gentleman's Magazine, of which he became editor and part proprietor in 1778; in his History of Leicestershire, which he began in 1795, and completed in 4 vols. fol. in 1815; and in a series of rare literary and antiquarian works which he continued to edit and print. But its chief result was the Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, in 9 vols. 8vo, 1812-15. This work was a rich biographical treasury, containing numerous traits of eminent men of every stamp, and much correspondence, judiciously selected and accurately given. But Nichols had not yet exhausted his stock of this sort of historical materials. In 1817-22, he published Literary Illustrations of the Eighteenth Century, intended as a Sequel to the Literary Anecdotes, in 4 vols. A fifth volume was in the press, and a sixth in preparation, when the author died in 1826. The former was published in 1828, and the latter in 1831. A seventh volume appeared in 1848, and an eighth in 1858, both by his son, John Bowyer Nichols, who succeeded to his father's business. (See Gentleman's Magazine for 1826.)