biography
| name: |
Tytler, James
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| |
known as Balloon Tytler
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (c.1747–1804)
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| biography:
| Journalist and balloonist, born in Fearn, Highland, N Scotland, UK. He studied at Edinburgh University, then sailed to Greenland on a whaling ship, and embarked on the first of many ill-fated literary ventures. To keep creditors at bay, he took on the editorship of the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1776–84). He was one of the first Britons to attempt a balloon ascent in 1784. After this he fell into debt and left for America, where he became a newspaper publisher. |
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