William Minto was a Scottish scholar, writer, editor, journalist, and author who lived from October 10, 1845, to March 1, 1893. Minto was born in Nether Auchintoul, which is in Aberdeenshire and close to Alford. He was born to farmer James Minto and his wife Barbara Copland. He went to school at the University of Aberdeen and got his M.A. in 1865, "winning the leading prizes in mathematics, classics, and philosophy." Beginning in 1866, he went to Merton College, Oxford, to study, but he dropped out the next year without getting a degree. Alexander Bain was the Regius Chair of Logic and the Regius Chair of English Literature at the University of Aberdeen. He hired him as a junior professor and taught under him. He wrote the book Manual of English Prose Literature, Biographical and Critical during this time. It came out in 1872 and was praised for having "sound judgment and sympathetic appreciation." Minto went to London in 1873. From 1874 to 1878, he wrote political and literary pieces for The Examiner. After that, he worked as a leader writer for The Daily News and The Pall Mall Gazette. During this time, Minto "was seen as a smart and strong opponent of Lord Beaconsfield's imperial policies."
