James Thomson

James Thomson, penname "B. V." (23 November 1834 - 3 June 1882) was a Scottish writer of visionary verse and belletristic prose, and a translator from German and Italian. After some years as a military schoolteacher, while living in London in the 1860s and 70s he earned a living as a journalist. His long poem The City of Dreadful Night was serialized in National Reformer in 1874 and later published in book form with other poems in 1880. Several prose volumes collect his satirical, belletristic, and critical writings. These include Essays and Phantasies (1881) and Satires and Profanities (1884). Posthumously, a volume of his translations of Leopardi was edited and published by his friend, the literary scholar and editor Bertram Dobell.