After completing his PhD at the University of Kent, Dr Jonathan Wild held a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Centre for the History of the Book, before being appointed as Lecturer at Edinburgh in September 2005, and then Senior Lecturer in 2011.  He is the author of The Rise of the Office Clerk in Literary Culture, 1880-1939 (Palgrave, 2006) and has also published articles on George Gissing, Jerome K. Jerome, and the popular literary magazine John O’London’s Weekly. 

Wild’s main areas of research are focused on the late Victorian and Edwardian periods.  He is particularly interested in the relationship between literature and social history during this era.  More specifically, Wild has published work on the following writers and topics: the relationship between white collar work and print culture 1880-1939; Jerome K Jerome, George Grossmith and comic writing in the 1880/90s; George Gissing; the popular literary magazine John O’London’s Weekly and the formation of interwar ‘middlebrow’ writing;and the literary depictions of clerks-turned-soldiers during and after the First World War.  

Dr. Wild would welcome research proposals in any area of late Victorian/Edwardian Literature, and in particular he would welcome proposals which have connections with any of the research areas listed above

Research activity

Wild's current projects include a monograph on literary culture in the Edwardian period for Edinburgh University Press, and further investigations into ‘middlebrow’ material culture during the interwar period.